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Field Museum of Natural History

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893
DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

GUIDE

Part 2

Archaeology of North America

HALL B (Ground Floor)

PAUL S. MARTIN

Assistant Curator of North American Archaeology

8 Plates in Photogravure, 10 Text-figures, 1 Map

BERTHOLD LAUFER
Curator, Department of Anthropology
Editor

CHICAGO, U. S. A.
1933

Field Museum of Natural History

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893
DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

GUIDE

Part 2 '

Archaeology of North America

HALL B (Ground Floor)

PAUL S. MARTIN

Assistant Curator of North American Archaeology

8 Plates in Photogravure, 10 Text-figures, 1 Map

BERTHOLD LAUFER
Curator, Department of Anthropology
Editor

CHICAGO, U. S. A.
1933

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

CONTENTS

I. Origin and Antiquity of the American Indians
Speculations concerning the Origin of

the Indians .

The Origin of the Indians .

Antiquity of Man in the New World . .

II. Culture Areas in North America .

Definition of Culture and Culture Areas
List and Characterization of Archaeo¬
logical Areas in North America . .

1. Arctic Area .

2. Canadian or Northern Interior

Area .

3. North Pacific Coast Area ....

4. Columbia-Fraser Area .

5. Plains and Rocky Mountain Area

6. Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi

Area .

7. Iroquoian Area .

8. North Atlantic Area .

9. California Area .

10. Southwest Area ........

11. Middle and Lower Mississippi

Valley Area .

12. South Atlantic Area .

Summary .

III. Indian Mounds and Methods of Burial . . .

General .

Mounds of the Great Lakes Area . . .
Mounds of the Middle and Lower
Mississippi Area .

1. Ohio .

2. The Cahokia Mound of Southern

Illinois .

PAGE

18
18

24
26
28
29
31

Contents

3. Mounds of the Lower Mississippi

Valley . 46

4. The Etowah Mounds . . 47

IV. Manufacture of Stone Artifacts . 49

Materials . 49

Processes . 50

1. Methods of Manufacture of

Chipped Stone Implements . . 50

2. Manufacture of Axes . 54

3. Manufacture of Problematical

Objects . 58

V. Mining, Manufacture, and Uses of Copper

Implements and Ornaments . 69

Mining . . 69

Manufacture of Copper Tools and

Ornaments . 72

VI. Bone and Shell Work . 80

Bone Work . 80

Shell Work . 81

VII. Pottery . . . . 91

Distribution . 91

Manufacture . . . . . 92

Decoration . 98

Pottery Types . 100

VIII. Popular Fallacies concerning the American

Indian . 103

IX. Explanation of Hall of North American

Archaeology . 107

Glossary . Ill

Bibliography . 113

By Authors . 113

By Subjects . 119

Index . 121

ARCHAEOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICA

I. ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE
AMERICAN INDIANS

Speculations concerning the Origin of the Indians

Ever since Columbus discovered America and mis¬
named the New World aborigines “Indians,” the question
as to when America was first peopled has been of great
interest to both students and laymen who have been and
are studying the history of the American Indian. The
term “Indian” although patently a misnomer is still so
commonly used and properly understood that it seems
preferable to continue its use rather than to substitute
“Amerind” or any other term. Naturally, a subject
which cannot be verified by documentary evidence has
produced many theories, wild guesses, and endless
speculations.

One of the first explanations of the origin of the
American aborigine was that the Indians were the direct
descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The
exponents of this supposition stated that Sargon, King
of Assyria (712 B.c.), captured and enslaved ten of the
twelve tribes of Israel. In some unexplained manner
some of the tribes became lost and eventually turned up
in North America. The Book of Mormon, which is
alleged to have been written by authority of direct
revelation, contains several portions concerning the fancied
relationship between the Ten Lost Tribes and the
American Indians.

Another fantastic legend about the origin of the
Indian is that of the “Welsh Indians.” A Welsh prince,
Madoc, sailed westward in a.d. 1170 and discovered a

Archaeology of North America

new land. He returned to Wales, outfitted a second
expedition, sailed for the new land, and was never heard
of again. This story was seized upon, partly for political
purposes, and embellished to prove that there existed a
tribe of “Welsh Indians” who spoke Welsh and possessed
Welsh Bibles brought to them by Prince Madoc. To
substantiate this myth, the following story was invented.
A certain preacher, Reverend Morgan Jones, was taken
prisoner by the Tuscarora Indians and condemned to
death. This worthy clergyman began to prepare himself
for the next world by praying in Welsh. The Indians
were amazed to hear him pray in their language, and when
they discovered that he could not only speak their tongue
but could also read their Welsh Bible, they released him!

No account of the legends concerning the origin of
the Indians would be complete without mention of the
story of the so-called “lost continent” of Atlantis. The
proponents of this fable saw a fancied resemblance between
the civilization of the Egyptians and that of the Maya
Indians of Central America; and to explain this imagined
similarity and the peopling of the New World, they
revived the legend of the “lost continent” of Atlantis,
which had been described by Plato, who probably had
the island of Crete in mind.

Not to be outdone, the pan-Paeific enthusiasts con¬
cocted the unfounded story of the hypothetical continent
of “Mu” which was supposed to have existed in the
Pacific Ocean. Just prior to the “catastrophe” which
caused “Mu” to sink, the “highly intelligent natives” had
a premonition concerning the impending doom, and were
wise enough to take to boats which finally drifted to the
New World.

Still other professional guessers, seeking for a logical
source for the Indians, have derived them to their own

Origin of American Indians

satisfaction from the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Aryans,
Japanese, Polynesians, Phoenicians, and Irish. Most of
these hypotheses are based on flimsy and chance analogies
in languages, arts, customs, elements of culture, and
myths. Needless to state, all these ideas are pure fiction
founded not on provable observations, but on superficial
resemblances, worthless opinions, and arbitrary fancies.

The Origin of the Indians

Before any theories can be advanced concerning the
origin of the American Indian, it is necessary to gather
some facts, the first of which should be concerned with
the question as to whether or not the Indians represent
one or more racial stocks. The best available evidence
comes from a detailed study of the identities and simi¬
larities of the body and skeleton. It is not possible here
to enter into a detailed, technical discussion of this subject;
but a few examples of the racial unity of the Indian may
be given:

(1) Perhaps the most easily observable physical
characteristic of the Indian is his hair, which tends
generally in pure-bloods to be straight and black, and in
cross section to be round. In this connection it is interest¬
ing to note that hair on his body and face is scant.

(2) His skin color is a yellowish brownish red.

(3) The nose is not so flat and broad as in Negroes,
nor so thin as in whites; nor is the bridge so flat as in
Negroes, nor so high as in whites.

(4) The cheek bones are generally prominent, which
causes the face to appear broad in respect to the width
of the head.

(5) The tibia and femur, the lower and upper leg
bones, are flatter than those of most other races.

Archaeology of North America

(6) The upper incisor teeth of more than 90 per cent
of the Indians are concave on the inside with a pronounced
border around the concavity.

There seems to be little doubt then, if any, that the
modern Indians, physically at least, present many startling
and fundamental parallels and counterparts and that
they represent a single group of people, who show
marked affinities with the Mongolians rather than with
any other race; for certainly the Indian is not Negroid
or Caucasoid. This does not mean that the Indian is
Chinese; but it implies that there was, long ago, a proto-
Mongoloid stem and from it branched on the one side
the Mongolians (to which division belong the Chinese)
and on the other the American Indians.

Recent studies by Dr. Hooton on a series of ancient
skeletal material from Pecos, New Mexico, lead him to
believe, however, that before the arrival of the Mongoloids
in North America, there were a few straggling groups of
long-headed, non-specialized people who drifted into this
country from Asia. These earlier non-Mongoloid immi¬
grants, who were absorbed by later invaders, present
racial peculiarities different from those of the modern
Indian.

Since there is not a shred of evidence for supposing
that the American Indian originated in the New World
and inasmuch as he belongs to the Mongoloid branch
and is therefore Asiatic in origin, the question arises as
to how and why he emigrated from Asia to the American
continent.

With the limited and primitive methods of transporta¬
tion at the disposal of prehistoric man, it is quite certain
that he must have entered by the easiest and shortest
route. The only region in the New World that lies in

Origin of American Indians

close proximity to the Old is that which is adjacent to
Bering Strait, for the least distance between South
America and Africa is about fourteen hundred miles;
and the distance between the closest Pacific islands and
the west coast of South America is over two thousand
miles. These great distances would have made it prac¬
tically impossible for wanderers to emigrate to the New
World unless by chance, or unless they were well equipped
for a long voyage. Moreover, all the evidence at hand
seems to indicate that the Pacific islands were settled
only in comparatively recent times; perhaps a few thousand
years ago. Therefore it is necessary to suppose that the
peopling of the New World took place by way of Bering
Strait, a channel of water about sixty miles wide, which
separates Alaska from Siberia. It is possible that the
original groups of settlers came across to the new land,
parts of which may be seen on clear days from the Siberian
shore, by boat or even on foot, because the strait freezes
over a few months each year and crossing at that time
on foot would be feasible.

In connection with this question of the peopling of
the New World it is interesting to point out that
Karl P. Schmidt of Field Museum of Natural History
believes that, during the periods of great glaciation in
Europe, part of the animal population retreated to
southern Europe and part, by way of a route south of
the Ural mountains, to northern Asia, which, with the
exception of the mountains, was probably not glaciated.
This wholesale migration to northern Asia was easily
possible because of the east-west trends of the Eurasian
mountain systems. It is likely that nomadic groups of
Asiatic peoples were attracted to northern Asia because
of the existence of this superabundance of game, which
insured a steadier supply of food. Then when the ice

Archaeology of North America

sheets receded, and the animals began to expand north,
west, and east, man probably followed the chase, as
many nomadic peoples do, and some groups may have
surged up into northeastern Siberia. The reasons for
emigrating were probably those which have reacted on
man and beast alike for all times; namely, pressure from
behind by other stocks, dissatisfaction, wandering pro¬
pensities, or need for new hunting and fishing grounds.
Once there, where food was more plentiful and climate
more inviting, man stayed.

Naturally, it should be understood that the Americas
were not settled within a short time or by one group of
people. This immigration was a slow, prolonged dribbling
and spread of successive waves of peoples. There was
no mass migration.

As the people multiplied they spread ever east and
south, and, when Columbus arrived, the greater part of
both the Americas was well settled. The population of
North America alone is estimated to have been about
a million or a million and one-half.

Just how long it took these invading bands to spread
all over two continents is not known. At first, it may
have been a slow process; but as more arrivals drifted in
the tendency was to push southward, since there was
little, if any, resistance either at the gateway to the New
World or to the south by established camps. It has
been estimated that if a tribe of people moved camp
but three miles each week, the southernmost tip of South
America could be reached in about seventy years. Such
an event probably never took place, but it is not neces¬
sary to postulate thousands of years of moving and
multiplying to account for the spread and peopling of the
New World.

Origin of American Indians

Antiquity of Man in the New World

If man had existed in the New World for untold
ages, it would be reasonable to expect to find human
bones definitely and unmistakably associated with those
of animals now extinct. In the Old World, for example,
there are numerous sites which yield human bones and
implements associated with animal remains of geological
formations of undoubted antiquity; namely, those of the
Pleistocene or glacial period. In the New World, no such
associations of proven great antiquity have yet been
discovered.

Many times in the last fifty years human remains
together with some extinct animals were alleged to have
been found in the New World. However, most of these
discoveries have proved to be of such doubtful character
that they are not generally accepted; or they had been
disturbed and mixed to such an extent that by the time
of discovery no definite evidence could be obtained.

Yet, even if human bones are found directly associated
with animal bones, it is imperative to remember that
such an association may have been brought about fortui¬
tously; that is, by floods, which might wash together both
recent and ancient forms of animal life and, after churning
them about, deposit them in one bed or stratum ; or certain
hardy members of these now extinct species of animals
may have outlived the other members of the group by
many centuries. Such associations, therefore, may not
be indicative of great age.

Plainly, therefore, it is not easy to state in absolute
terms exactly when America was first peopled. However,
there is some evidence at hand which will aid in making
an estimate of man's antiquity in the New World.

The more recent history of man in the Old World,
especially in Europe, goes back at least one hundred

Archaeology of North America

thousand years. During this period of time cultures
waxed, waned, and were superseded bj^ others. With the
aid of geologists and paleontologists, archaeologists have
been able to assign relative dates to each of the identified
periods. Thus, for example, it is possible to state approxi¬
mately when polished stone weapons superseded un¬
polished ones; when horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs were
first domesticated and wheat and barley were cultivated ;
when the wheel and pottery were invented, and the dates
of their introduction and spread into various parts of the
Old World. This group of elements or culture traits plus
many more makes up what is known as the New Stone
Age, which appeared in Europe about ten thousand
years ago.

It is reasonable to suppose, then, if the first people
who came to the New World knew of or possessed any
of these aforementioned traits, that they would probably
have brought some of this knowledge with them. But,
what is actually found in the New World?

It is fairly certain that when man first entered this
continent he brought with him the dog, harpoon, and
fire drill, and the knowledge of making fire, of chipping
and polishing stone implements, of primitive house¬
building, of basket-making, and probably of the spear-
thrower.

It is very significant that in the New World there is
no trace of any of the fundamental traits of Asiatic
civilization. For example, in Asia, agriculture was
practised by means of the plow and the ox as draught-
animal; in America, where the plow was unknown, it was
carried on by means of planting sticks and hilling. All
Old World domesticated animals, such as the ox, horse,
camel, reindeer, sheep, goat, pig, and chicken are absent
in the New World, the dog, the turkey, the llama, and the

Origin of American Indians

guinea pig being the only domesticated animals of the
Indians. Wheeled chariots, the potter's wheel, stringed
musical instruments, roofing tiles, and the art of smelting,
forging, and casting iron are strictly lacking in aboriginal
America.

Not a single Old World cultivated plant, such as
wheat, barley, oats, rice, soy bean, alfalfa, peach, apricot,
and onion ever found its way into America prior to 1492.
Significant, too, is the fact that all American plant cultiva¬
tions, such as Indian corn or maize, potato, tobacco, pine¬
apple, guava, papaya, Capsicum, peanut, cashew, tomato,
and many others, were derived from wild American native
plants, and none of the American cultivated plants
occurred in the Old World before the discovery of the
New World.

Plainly, then, this mass of evidence indicates that
many thousands of years ago American and Asiatic
cultures separated and have since developed independently,
and that man must have entered the New World before
these Old World specializations were commonly known
or before they were widespread, which was about ten
thousand years ago.

We must not believe, however, that after the New
World was populated it marched along in splendid isola¬
tion without receiving certain Asiatic traits from time to
time through the agency of diffusion. It seems certain
that the following traits found in portions of the New
World are directly due to Asiatic influences: shoulder
blade and water-gazing divination, worship of the bear,
shamanism, the composite bow, the moccasin, ivory
carving, and many folk tales.

However, practically all the other cultural traits and
advances which the Spaniards found when they first

Archaeology of North America

entered and explored America were invented, discovered,
or developed in the New World independently of the
Old World.

Moreover, as stated before, if men of the Old Stone
Age had lived in America, one would naturally expect
to find their fossil remains or their implements. Never¬
theless, no fossil man from an unquestionably ancient
geological era has ever yet come to light in the New
World; nor have any bones of any extinct species of
man ever yet been discovered anywhere in the Americas.

Recently, however, in southwestern New Mexico, at
Bishop's Cap Peak, R. P. Conkling has discovered new
evidence concerning man’s antiquity in the New World.
Likewise, under the direction of field parties from the
Colorado Museum of Natural History and the American
Museum of Natural History in New York excavations
have been carried on at Folsom, New Mexico, which
turned up stone projectile points of an unusual type
associated and in close contact with bones of an extinct
species of bison.

In Gypsum Cave in southwestern Nevada Dr. Harring¬
ton, who was in charge of a joint expedition from the
Southwest Museum of Los Angeles and the California
Institute of Technology, found evidence indicating the
association of man and three extinct species of animals:
a great ground sloth, one of the indigenous American
camels, and the horse. This evidence consists of dart
points, pieces of worked cane, arrow or dart shafts, and
two camp fires and fire pits. Sloth dung had been used
as fuel, and the fire pit lay under a consolidated and
undisturbed stratum of sloth dung. Fortunately, these
discoveries were made by trained experts, who meticu¬
lously collected and recorded all the data.

Origin of American Indians

The dating of this evidence is, naturally, important,
interesting, and difficult. It was formerly thought that
certain sloths, camels, horses, and certain types of bison
had become extinct fifty thousand to one-half a million
years ago. But much information concerning this subject
has recently come to light, so that now many paleontolo¬
gists feel that the time of the extinction of these animals
must be placed considerably later than was formerly
thought possible. Therefore, the undoubted associations
of man with extinct species of bison, sloth, and horse do
not necessarily imply any great antiquity.

Thus, the date of entry of the Indian to the New World
may be only approximately fixed as coming before the
New Stone Age was well under way in the Old World,
and prior to the extinction of certain American fauna,
such as ground sloths, the native camels, and a species
of bison; in other words, probably considerably less than
twenty-five thousand years ago. There are many die-
hards who, even after all this evidence has been presented,
will still argue that the Indians must have inhabited the
New World for hundreds of thousands of years. Their
argument runs something like this: the civilizations of
the Mayas, Aztecs, and Peruvians were highly developed;
such a remarkable rise in culture must have taken fifty
to one hundred thousand years; therefore, the Indians
have occupied the New World for that length of time or
longer. Such reasoning lacks logic and collapses immedi¬
ately upon close investigation. It is known from recorded
dates that some of the most advanced civilizations in
Mesopotamia, starting from a fairly primitive agricultural
level, waxed and waned within a maximum period of
from three to four thousand years. That of Egypt also
rose from a primitive agricultural status, flourished and

Archaeology of North America

declined within the comparatively short period of about
three thousand years.

Assuming that the highest American civilizations
required an equal length of time for their remarkable
growth and development from lowly agricultural founda¬
tions, it is plainly not necessary to suppose that they
needed many thousands of years for their development
or that they are very ancient.

II. CULTURE AREAS IN NORTH AMERICA
Definition of Culture and Culture Areas

The word “culture” as used by anthropologists does
not mean the improvement and refinement of the mind,
an action which implies a conscious, voluntary effort.
Culture in an anthropological sense embraces the sum
total of human behavior and activities which are handed
on by precept, imitation, and social heritage. This would
include all customs, habits, usages, attitudes, beliefs,
religious and political ideas, and material products, such
as methods of building houses, of manufacturing all kinds
of artifacts (weapons, pottery, ornaments, baskets, cloth),
of planting and harvesting, and so on. In short, culture
means everything man creates, imagines, thinks about,
and hands on to the next generation. This definition
implies group participation and continuity. A chimpanzee,
for example, may learn to make certain movements to
obtain food and thus may attain some individual cultural
habits, but since he is unable to pass on what he
has acquired, it may safely be said that chimpanzees
possess no culture. Culture as here defined involves no
conscious effort on the part of the individual or the group,
but is rather unconscious or naive.

When a culture becomes complex and advanced,
especially in a material way, it is customary then to
refer to it as a ^civilization,” such as the Maya civiliza¬
tion; but in reality culture covers all the elements of
civilization and does not necessarily connote any degree
unless the term “high” or “advanced” culture is used.

Naturally, in dealing with North American archaeology,
it is the material part of any culture that remains for study,
since no one knows exactly what political, social, or reli-

Archaeology of North America

gious ideas the prehistoric inhabitants held. Therefore, it
has been customary to divide North America into twelve
culture areas or regions, each of which presents so many
cultural traits peculiar to itself as to contrast it with or
set it off from the other culture areas. These traits, for
example, might include pottery, weaving, stone, copper
and wood artifacts, burials, and houses. The borders
for each area are rather indefinite, since one culture may
blend with a neighboring one without regard for modern
state or political boundaries.

It should be clearly understood that the various cultural
traits which will be outlined on the pages to follow are
not all of the same age, but represent probably many
different ages or periods. For example, in the Great
Lakes area, copper artifacts, together with problematical
objects (banner-stones, boat-stones, gorgets, and so on),
occur in the same region as the burial mounds; but this
does not imply that the copper artifacts and the problem¬
atical objects were manufactured at the same time that
the mounds were erected. In point of fact, some of the
mounds are probably older than either of the other two
traits mentioned. Therefore, the concept of the culture
area merely describes what is found therein, and does
not necessarily yield any historical or chronological clues.

List and Characterization of Archaeological
Areas in North America

A list of the twelve North American culture areas
with some of their prominent and distinctive traits is
as follows. Each area bears a number which corresponds
to the one on the map (p. 19).

1. ARCTIC AREA

This area covers all the northern edge of the North
American continent from Greenland to Alaska and seems

Culture Areas in North America

to contain what was a fairly uniform culture, essentially
Eskimoan except where Athapascan or northern Algonkin
tribes affected it. But little archaeological work has been
done in this region, and, so far, all evidence indicates that

Culture Areas of North America in Prehistoric Times. After Wissler. For
explanation see pages 18-34.

the culture in prehistoric times was practically the same
as it is at present. For example, the ancient houses,
methods of burial, and artifacts uncovered by archaeolo-

Archaeology of North America

gists are similar to those used by the modern Eskimo who
have not yet been affected by European contacts.

The climate in the Arctic area is everywhere harsh,
cold, and damp. Some sort of shelter, then, is almost a
necessity. Great ingenuity was displayed by the Eskimo
in utilizing the scant building material at hand for house¬
building. Houses were constructed from driftwood, whale¬
bone, stone, snow, and earth. A permanent type of shelter
was devised which was serviceable and warm. The floor
in the houses was dug some eighteen inches or more below
the natural level and a passageway or entrance, which
functioned both as a “hall” and entry way, was effective
in keeping out wind and snow when the house was entered.
Heat and light were furnished by flat stone lamps, the
only place in aboriginal America where lamps were used;
and fat or oil was burned, since there was little or no fuel
of any other kind. The tools which were used in daily
life were made of ivory or bone, often beautifully orna¬
mented, and present a high degree of inventiveness.

In some places stone was pecked, chipped, and polished
to make adzes, chisels, picks, knives, dishes, and sinkers,
but grooved axes and celts were practically never manu¬
factured by the inhabitants of this region. Stone ear¬
plugs, lip-plugs, beads, and pendants were skillfully and
beautifully fashioned, chiefly from jade, and a crude,
heavy type of pottery was used in the western portion of
the area.

The Arctic area displays a fairly high culture consider¬
ing the frigid environment and the lack of natural facilities.
The Eskimo, who probably inhabited most of this region,
were the last to enter the New World, and, since all the
territory to the south was occupied, were forced to remain
in what appears to be a most unattractive region and to
make many adaptations to the arctic climate.

Culture Areas in North America

2. CANADIAN OR NORTHERN INTERIOR AREA

Practically no archaeological work has been done in
this region, and for that reason little is known about it.
However, it may be said that the modern Indians who
inhabit this great territory — the Athapascan and the
northern Algonkin tribes — are hunters, and probably their
culture, as it was first observed, is very much the same
as that of prehistoric times. The culture seems to have
been very meager indeed, and all one finds on old camp
sites are arrowheads and spearheads, knives, scrapers,
hammerstones and boiling stones.

3. NORTH PACIFIC COAST AREA

The territory inhabited by the north Pacific coast
peoples comprises the long, narrow strips of mainland
and the adjacent islands from Puget Sound to Mount
St. Elias in southern Alaska. The mountains of this
region descend almost to the coast line, and the area as
a whole is densely forested.

The culture of the north Pacific coast Indians, as first
observed by Europeans in the seventeenth century, was
probably much as in prehistoric times. For that reason
a description of the culture of the modern groups, except
where modified by European contacts, would hold also
for the prehistoric cultures. Agriculture was not practised.
Food consisted of fish, shellfish, eel grass, seaweed, berries,
seeds, and bulbs.

Perhaps the most prominent features of this coastal
culture were those of wood-working and carving. These
people were inveterate wood-workers. Almost every con¬
ceivable sort of object was fashioned from wood. For
example, canoes nearly a hundred feet long were made
from the trunks of red cedars. Cedar wood was also
employed for paddles; totem poles; boxes for cooking (by

Archaeology of North America

means of hot stones, as pottery was unknown); boxes
for water vessels, for storage, and for burial; dishes;
spoons; and clubs. They also used wood for traps, dams,
digging sticks, roasting tongs, bows and arrows, cradles,
and houses.

Wood-working tools, which were ground and polished
rather than chipped, were therefore a necessity, and
were as ingenious and utilitarian as they were plentiful.
Great slabs and planks were split off from live, standing
trees by means of stone wedges and fire. Adzes made
of stone and grooved for hafting were employed for
smoothing planks. Stone chisels, sometimes hafted with
bone or wood, were used for thinning and smoothing.
Hand hammers, likewise of stone, and resembling pestles,
served for driving chisels and wedges. Pile drivers of
stone, often covered on one side and weighing from twenty
to fifty pounds, were used for driving deep into the river
bed wooden piles for the construction of fish weirs or for
the attachment of fish nets. In addition to these tools,
stone mortars, pestles, knives, clubs, and mauls abound,
although chipped stone objects and stone axes are rare.

The artistic abilities of these people were not confined,
however, to wood-working and carving, but were displayed
in an exuberant manner in minor works of stone, copper,
horn, bone, shell, and ivory. This culture, sometimes
known as the “cedar and salmon culture/' was extremely
virile and entirely different from any other American
culture.

4. COLUMBIA-FRASER AREA

The culture of this area, although the climate is varied,
is fairly uniform and displays some influence from Cali¬
fornia and the Plains. Perhaps the most conspicuous
features are the abundance of chipped stone artifacts,
such as arrowheads and spearheads, drills, knives, and

Culture Areas in North America

scrapers, and the rarity of ground and polished stone
objects. In addition to these objects, archaeologists have
uncovered the following bone artifacts: digging-stick
handles, awls, clubs or swords, tubes, needles, fishhooks,
and gaming pieces; and the following stone artifacts:
arrow-shaft smoothers, dishes, mortars, pestles, mauls,
clubs or swords, pipes, girdled sinkers, and wedges. No
grooved axes, however, have been found.

The peoples of this area never practised agriculture
or manufactured pottery, but subsisted by fishing, hunting,
and gathering seeds, nuts, and roots. Still to be seen are
the ancient circular house pits, from one to three feet
deep, thirty or forty feet in diameter, and outlined by
elevated rims of earth or stones.

5. PLAINS AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN AREA

As indicated, this area embraces the western portions
of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma,
Texas, the greater part of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada,
and all of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. It is surprising
that so little is known of this important region, but so
far little systematic work has been carried on. Perhaps
the prominent feature of this area is its lack of any group
of striking characteristics. Naturally, some influences
from the surrounding cultures are found on the borders;
but they quickly fade out as one approaches the heart
of the area. Agriculture, with certain exceptions, was
not practicable except in the eastern portion of the area
and even there, where distances between streams and
lakes are relatively great, it is probable that the inhabitants
were nomadic in the fall, winter, and early spring, and
sedentary during the remainder of the year.

Several large flint quarries have been found in Okla¬
homa, Kansas, and Texas, while soapstone and quartzite

Archaeology of North America

were quarried in Wyoming, and obsidian in Yellowstone
Park. The commonest stone artifacts include arrow¬
heads and spearheads, knives, scrapers, and grooved
hammers. Pottery is found on the eastern and southern
edges, and in the central portion of the area. Scattered
throughout the area are circles and lines of boulders. It
is assumed that the circles mark old house or tipi sites,
while the long lines of stones are said to be markers for
buffalo grounds. In the extreme southern part of the
Plains area in Texas are found numerous kitchen middens
which are the remains of a hunter culture; and along
streams are camp sites of a superior culture. Evidences
of the Basket-maker culture of the Southwest have been
uncovered in caves of western Texas and Oklahoma. As
more investigations are carried on in this great area,
significant differences probably will be revealed and more
light shed on the peoples who lived there at various times.

6. GREAT LAKES AND UPPER MISSISSIPPI AREA

The culture traits of this area do not sharply
differentiate it from the neighboring areas; but there
are four features at least that appear in portions of the
Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi region that make
this division justifiable.

The first of these features is the well-developed copper
industry. Only a brief mention of it is necessary here,
because the subject is fully discussed in another chapter
(p. 69). Suffice it to say that copper objects abounded,
especially in Wisconsin, and comprise harpoons, fishhooks,
crescent-shaped and long-bladed knives, chisels, arrow¬
heads and spearheads, gouges, beads, pendants, axes,
awls, and punches (Plates V, VI).

The second of these features is the unique effigy-
mound culture. Effigy-mounds, so-called because they

Culture Areas in North America

are constructed in the form of animals and birds, are
found particularly in southern Wisconsin. A few occur
in the contiguous areas of northern Illinois, northeastern
Iowa, and southeastern Minnesota. These effigies were
built as though seen either from above or in profile and
include such shapes as bears, panthers, birds, and various
other puzzling forms (for more information see p. 38).

The third of these features is the use of catlinite or
pipe-stone which was quarried from a mile-long narrow
outcrop in Pipestone County, southwestern Minnesota.
Catlinite, named after George Catlin, an early American
writer on Indian subjects, is a soft red or light-colored
slate formed from clay. Because it was so readily worked,
catlinite was extensively used for pipes, ornaments, and
problematical objects. These manufactured articles are
found over this entire area, in spite of the fact that the
source of catlinite is limited to a very small region.

The fourth of these features is the novel and mysterious
construction of “garden-beds,” peculiar to Michigan.
These garden-beds are of various sizes and shapes, covering
sometimes as much as one hundred acres. They may be
described as ridges or rows of dirt from eighteen to thirty
inches in height which were laid out in some geometric
form, either rectangular, with parallel ridges crossing one
another and resembling most the gridiron plan of a
modern city, and also with straight or convex rows, some¬
times with a path between the rows and sometimes not;
or circular, with variously curved avenues or paths between
the rows. For what purpose these garden-beds were used
is not known. Maize was generally planted in hills, not
in rows; but it is within the realm of probability to con¬
sider them as having some connection with agriculture.
These beds have all been destroyed but were seen and
described by explorers of the early nineteenth century.

Archaeology of North America

In addition to these four peculiar features, this area
has yielded numerous artifacts such as grooved axes,
tobacco-pipes, drills, arrowheads and spearheads, mortars
and cylindrical pestles, adzes, celts, many problematical
forms, and pottery. Peculiar to Wisconsin are the fluted
axes, which are characterized by the flutings or grooves
and which run longitudinally from just below the handle
socket to within a short distance of the cutting edge.
Agriculture was carried on in favorable localities, but
hunting, fishing, and seed-gathering were likewise impor¬
tant factors in the culture.

7. IROQUOIAN AREA

This culture area comprising the regions about Lakes
Erie and Ontario, which is the smallest of all the North
American areas, is often included in the Great Lakes or
North Atlantic areas. However, there are evidences here
of at least two occupations, Algonkin and Iroquoian,
the last of which was that of the Iroquois Indians. There¬
fore it seems best to set this region off by itself and to
present the distinguishing characteristics. In the follow¬
ing paragraphs are given separate lists of artifacts peculiar
to the Algonkins and to the Iroquois, together with a
list of objects common to both.

The Algonkins were preeminently stone- workers.
Excavations of their villages have brought to light the
following: several types of arrowheads and spearheads;
ground slate arrows, knives, “bayonets/’ and semilunar
knives; cylindrical pestles; gouges; grooved axes; and
problematical stones, such as gorgets, banner-stones, bar
and bird amulets, and boat-stones. Copper objects,
which resemble those from Wisconsin, are frequently
found, but it is not certain whether they were manu¬
factured by the Algonkins or by other tribes. Pottery

Culture Areas in North America

found on Algonkin sites was made in two ways: by the
coil and by the paddle and anvil methods. These two
processes of manufacturing pottery are explained in the
chapter devoted to ceramics (p. 91). The Algonkin
pottery shapes are usually globular with pointed bases
and either constricted or flaring at the mouth. In general
this pottery is crude and inferior to Iroquoian work.
Artifacts of bone, antler, teeth, and shell are extremely
rare at Algonkin sites.

The Iroquois, on the other hand, while less skillful
and less interested in chipped stone-work, produced fine
bone and antler artifacts. A partial list of Iroquoian
artifacts would include: arrowheads, especially the small
triangular type; stone mullers or millstones; stone and
pottery tobacco-pipes, the latter type displaying barrel¬
shaped, urn-shaped, ovoid and trumpet-shaped bowls.

The Iroquoian pottery was all made by the coil process
and is differentiated from the Algonkin by its overhanging
rim. It is elaborately decorated with geometric designs
produced either by stamping or punching methods. As
noted above, bone, antler, teeth, and shell artifacts are
common, and include arrows and harpoon points, fish¬
hooks, mattocks, chisels, adzes, and combs.

The following artifacts are rare or absent at Iroquoian
sites: stone spearheads, slate arrows and knives, stone
gouges, grooved axes, problematical objects, and copper
artifacts. Common to both Algonkin and Iroquoian
cultures are stone arrowheads, drills, scrapers, mortars,
adzes, and celts.

Exact knowledge of the type of shelter characteristic
of the Algonkin culture is lacking, but there is some
evidence for believing that it consisted of an earth-covered,
dome-shaped hut built over an excavated pit. The houses
of the Iroquois were bark-covered community lodges,

Archaeology of North America

housing from five to twelve families, and built within
stockaded defensive walls.

Agriculture was extensively practised by the Iroquois,
but was apparently not carried on by the Algonkins.

8. NORTH ATLANTIC AREA

The North Atlantic culture area is commonly divided
into two sub-areas: (1) the southern portion, which
includes the territory from the Delaware River with an
indefinite western termination at the Maine-New Hamp¬
shire boundary; (2) the northern sub-division, which
comprises all of New England and the Maritime Provinces
of Canada.

The southern sub-area, the center of which is in New
Jersey, may be characterized as consisting of village
sites with numerous storage pits, pottery of Algonkin
and Iroquoian types, shell-heaps in which are found very
few specimens, and abundant, well-worked artifacts of
stone, including grooved axes, rounded celts, pestles,
problematical forms (gorgets, banner-stones, bird-shaped
stones), and chipped stone implements such as projectile
points, drills, knives, and scrapers. Agriculture was
important.

In contrast with the southern area, the northern sub¬
division contains relatively few village sites, while shell-
heaps are large and numerous, and harbor an abundance
of artifacts. There is no evidence of agriculture and little
of settled village life.

Within the northern sub-area are the remains of two
cultures — the Red-paint culture, which is the earlier, and
the shell-heap culture.

The Red-paint culture, so named because it was an
ancient custom to place quantities of red ochre with the
cremated burials, is found for the most part along the

Culture Areas in North America

river valleys of Maine. In these burial sites are found
long, slender, stone celts, stone gouges and adzes, slate
arrowheads, and slender slate '‘bayonet points/' stone
crescents, semilunar stone knives, stone tubes, stone
plummets, and long stone pendants. Pottery, grooved
axes, and problematical stones are absent. This early
pre-pottery culture does not seem to be related to the
Eskimo culture, but there is good evidence for believing
that the Red-paint people were affiliated with an Algonkin
tribe, the Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland, who were
exterminated by the white settlers in 1829.

The shell-heap culture differs considerably from the
Red-paint culture because of the presence of the following
objects: grooved axes, angular celts, stone and pottery
pipes, chipped implements (arrowheads and spearheads,
knives, drills, and so on), bone awls, arrow points, fish¬
hooks, harpoons, flaking tools, and ornaments. Slate
objects are lacking. The pottery is coarse and heavy
and has a rounded base, rather than the conical or lemon¬
shaped base of the Algonkin type.

9. CALIFORNIA AREA

The California culture area has been sub-divided, on
the basis of archaeological work, into three sub-areas:
the Southwestern, the Central, and the Northwestern.

The Southwestern sub-area, which consists of the
Santa Barbara Islands and the mainland adjacent to
the Santa Barbara Channel, is noteworthy because of its
wealth of antiquities. It is characterized by an abundance
of shell ornaments, such as disk, globular, and tubular
beads; steatite or soapstone bowls, used for household
and burial purposes; baking slabs; digging-stick weights;
tubular pipes; shell fishhooks; knives and scrapers of shale;
bone awls; harpoons; whistles; whalebone wedges and

Archaeology of North America

chisels (since the stone ax and celt were foreign to Cali¬
fornia); clubs; well-chipped flint implements; and mediocre
pottery.

The Central sub-area shows less specialization and
fewer unique types than the Santa Barbara region. A
list of the most distinctive artifacts comprises stone
mortars and pestles; concave shell beads; plummet-shaped
sinkers or charm stones; curved and serrated obsidian
blades; narrow high cylindrical vessels of soapstone;
arrow-shaft straighteners; and salmon-grease dishes.

The Northwestern culture has for typical artifacts
wedge-mauls with knobbed or flanged heads, stone pestles
tapering gradually to a point with a flange near the base,
perforated net-sinkers, pointed bone implements, obsidian
blades ranging in size from a few inches to three feet in
length, flint knives which were hafted, slate “slave-killers/"
two-homed mullers, tubular tobacco-pipes of soapstone,
and non-portable mortars excavated from bedrock. It
should be noted that the grooved stone ax, celt, and gouge
were foreign to California.

Agriculture was never practised in aboriginal Cali¬
fornia, although the inhabitants were sedentary, not
nomadic. Wild vegetable products such as berries, seeds,
and acorns, especially, together with wild game and fish,
provided the necessary foods.

The permanence of California culture is the most
important single contribution to the history of civilization
that the study of aboriginal California yields. There are
few places in the world where the basic ideas underwent
so few changes, for the natives traded the same materials,
ate the same food, sewed skins and rush mats, and coiled
baskets two or three thousand years ago as do their modern
descendants. The fundamentals of these cultures remained
immutable.

Culture Areas in North America

10. SOUTHWEST AREA

The culture developed within this area (Utah, southern
Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, western Texas, and
northern Mexico) was the highest and most advanced
of any in North America. It is hoped that this area will
be dealt with in detail in a guide to Southwestern Archae¬
ology and Ethnology (Hall 7).

The culture of the Southwest, sometimes known as
the Pueblo culture because the people lived in large
villages, has been divided into three main periods and
several sub-divisions: (1) the Basket-maker or pre-pottery
period; (2) the Pueblo period, during which time large
stone houses and excellent pottery were developed; (3) the
modern period, dating from 1700 to the present. South¬
western cultural influence spread into the adjacent Plains
area and over into southern California.

11. MIDDLE AND LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY AREA

This area, which includes especially the drainages of
the Ohio and Arkansas Rivers, contains more mounds
on the square mile, and larger mounds, than any other
North American area. For that reason it is often called
the “mound area/' although, strictly speaking, mounds
are found in many other areas, notably the Great Lakes
area. It must not be assumed, on the one hand, that all
mounds were built at the same time, or, on the other,
that any great age can be claimed for the mounds. More
details about the mounds may be found on page 42.

Although ordinarily this area is considered as a unit,
in reality there are several centers of specialization. As
yet no one center may be regarded as typical. Archaeo¬
logical work has proved that there are many elements
which are common to the area as a whole. Likewise,
certain phases of this Middle and Lower Mississippi

Archaeology of North America

Valley culture blend imperceptibly with the cultures to
the north and the southeast.

In the southern portion of this area pottery was well
made, and is perhaps one of the salient characteristics of
the region. This pottery was painted as well as incised
with designs, and often represents animal and human
shapes (p. 100, Plate III).

The range of stone artifacts is greater than in any
other North American area. The following list bears
out this statement: mica ornaments; sword-like blades;
discoidals or “chunkey stones”; obsidian implements,
although obsidian does not occur anywhere in the region;
problematical objects; tobacco-pipes; chert agricultural
implements; numberless chipped implements, such as
drills, arrowheads and spearheads, scrapers, axes, celts,
chisels, and adzes; and a cache of more than eight thousand
large flint disks or blanks.

Copper, especially in Ohio, was likewise worked in a
remarkably skillful manner; but the copper artifacts of
this area differ sharply from those found in Wisconsin,
for these examples include copper head-dresses repre¬
senting antlers, copper breastplates, copper ear orna¬
ments, copper bracelets, copper beads, and copper effigies
(Plate II). Carved bone, shell, and stone ornaments of
beautiful and delicate workmanship are of frequent
occurrence and in some instances seem to show evidence
of art influence from Mexico (Plate VIII).

An important and famous local development within
this large area centers in Ohio. Among its characteristics
may be listed numerous and great earthworks or mounds,
including the Great Serpent Mound, and a remarkable
esthetic development which found expression especially
in creating artifacts and ornaments of stone, bone, wood,
copper, and mica.

Culture Areas in North America

12. SOUTH ATLANTIC AREA

This area includes the southeastern part of Georgia
and all of Florida. The culture differs sharply from that
of the North Atlantic area, but merges almost imper¬
ceptibly with that of the region to the west, that of the
Lower Mississippi Valley area.

Perhaps the salient feature of this area is the abundance
of large shell-heaps located along the Atlantic and Gulf
coasts, which bear witness to the fact that, although
agriculture was practised somewhat, the chief source of
food came from the rivers and the sea. Many of these
shell-heaps have never been disturbed, while others
have been utilized secondarily as sites for dwellings and
defence.

Burials were usually made in earth or sand mounds
and, in contrast to those of the North Atlantic area, are
accompanied by many objects such as pottery figures
and pottery vessels. Some of the latter were often “killed"
(bottom of pot intentionally perforated), while others,
specially made in advance with perforations and holes,
served only as mortuary vessels or offerings. Five forms
of burial existed: extended (body at full length); flexed
(knees drawn up toward chest); exposure until flesh and
soft tissues decomposed and then bones interred; crema¬
tion; and urn burial (bones or remains of cremation
placed in large urn).

Along the Gulf coast, houses were built on piles. In
other localities they were built of poles and thatch and
placed within a defensive palisade.

Archaeological work has revealed many other phases
of this culture, such as carved stone bowls; stone plates
or dishes; shell hoes; pottery tobacco-pipes of angular
trumpet shapes with effigy bowls; unpainted pottery of
effigy shapes or with stamped and incised designs, mostly

Archaeology of North America

curvilinear; wooden masks; figurines and dishes, all well
carved; chipped flint implements, especially from the
northern part of the area; gold, silver, and copper orna¬
ments, some of which were undoubtedly manufactured
within the southern part of the area; and hoe-shaped
stone implements, resembling a form prevalent in South
America. The grooved ax is extremely rare. Celts occur
in large numbers and correspond in shape and size with
those found in the West Indies. There is some evidence
in the gold work, in the pottery designs, in some of the
stone and wooden artifacts, and in the type of house, that
the prehistoric culture of Florida was influenced by that
of the West Indies and the northern part of South America.

Summary

From this welter of facts concerning archaeology and
from many more not given here pertaining to the living
Indians, it is possible to bring order out of apparent chaos.
By a thorough analysis and comparison of all North
American culture traits, the twelve large and seemingly
disconnected and unrelated culture areas may be reduced
to three fundamental or principal culture centers; namely,
the Southwest, the Southeast, and the Northwest Coast.

The Southwest has received many cultural impulses
from Mexico, such as painted pottery, stone masonry,
and cloth-weaving. Curiously enough, however, the
Southwestern culture has been passive in that it never
affected to any great extent the surrounding peoples.

The Southeast, it is believed, likewise received certain
cultural traits from Mexico, as well as from South America
by way of the West Indies. Such features as palisaded vil¬
lages, urn burials, dugout canoes, cane splint basketry, the
blow-gun, and incised pottery, point to a South American-
Antillean origin. On the other hand, certain traits, such

Culture Areas in North America

as carved shell gorgets and the pyramidal mounds, were
probably derived from Mexico. Certainly it is easy to
discern an admixture of two great cultural currents which
flowed into this area and which profoundly influenced
the entire Southeastern culture. Moreover, the South¬
eastern culture was expansive and left its stamp in one
form or another on a large part of the Northeast, the
Great Lakes region, and the Plains area.

The Northwest Coast was manifestly different and
isolated from the other centers. Few, if any, of the
impulses which emanated northward from Mexico ever
reached this region. Agriculture, pottery, and grooved
axes were unknown. The art, basketry, weaving, wood¬
working, and especially the social and economic ideas
were utterly different or represented special, independent
developments. It is believed by students of the North¬
west Coast culture that some of the culture of this region
came from eastern Asia and was so completely reworked
that it often is difficult to distinguish between that which
was of independent invention and that of Asiatic origin.
The influence of this culture center seeped southward,
eastward, and northward.

III. INDIAN MOUNDS AND METHODS

OF BURIAL

General

Who were the “mound-builders”? Why and how did
they build mounds and where did they go afterwards?
These are questions often heard.

The mounds which abound in the upper and lower
Mississippi Valley excite the curiosity of many people,
for a cloud of mystery seems to enshroud these prehistoric
earthworks. As one looks at a mound, one can easily
imagine the chatter of voices, the quarrels, the jokes,
and the sweating that occurred as load after load of dirt
was dumped on the intended spot.

Up to comparatively recent times, many people
believed that the mounds were built by a highly civilized
group of peoples who were finally overrun and stamped
out by the uncivilized Indians. This idea of a mighty
nation with advanced ideas of government and religion
and with great knowledge of all the arts and crafts, which
later disappeared leaving behind no evidences of its wealth,
glory, and power save the mounds, is a fascinating theory,
and one which, unfortunately, still has many adherents.

Careful archaeological work in the mound area has
dissipated all former ideas of an extinct race of “mound-
builders” and has shown, without any shadow of doubt,
that the builders of the mounds were all American Indians,
whose modern descendants were living somewhere in the
Mississippi Valley when Europeans first penetrated the
mound area.

Many of the mounds were built for burial purposes;
others served as bases for houses and ceremonial struc¬
tures; still others may have been constructed as village

Indian Mounds

enclosures or as fortifications; and a few were built for
purposes as yet unknown.

The construction of the mounds presents no great
engineering problem. Certainly there is no evidence
that the Indians possessed any knowledge of machinery
or any secret methods of construction. Building a mound
involved willing laborers (there being no grounds for
postulating slavery), cooperation, a preconceived plan,
and hard, manual labor. One may gain some idea of
the huge amount of work involved in building one of the
larger Ohio mounds by considering the fact that it took
the Ohio State Museum expedition of fifteen workers,
equipped with teams and scrapers, about nine months
to move the twenty thousand cubic yards in a burial
mound which measured 250 feet long, 150 feet wide, and
30 feet high, and every advantage of gravity was seized
upon to hasten the work. Imagine, then, how much
more difficult it must have been for the original builders
to transport such large quantities of dirt and to erect
this great mound.

The method of building was very simple. Each person
who was assisting carried dirt in baskets or skin bags
and dumped his load on the ever-growing heap. Sticks,
clam-shells, stone hoes or shoulder blades of bison, deer,
or elk may have served to loosen or to dig the dirt.

The shapes of the mounds took several forms and may
be classified as follows: round or conical, oval, pyramidal
or flat- topped, linear, and effigy. Pyramidal or flat-topped
mounds occur mostly in the middle and lower Mississippi
Valley; effigy or “image” mounds are principally in
Wisconsin.

A detailed consideration of the various types of mounds
and their contents and of the type of burials may best
be given according to culture areas.

Archaeology of North America

Mounds of the Great Lakes Area

In the Great Lakes culture area there are mounds of
four general forms: conical with round bases, oval, linear,
and effigy, plus a few anomalous, irregular types. Prac¬
tically all these mounds were built for burial purposes.
It should be noted, however, that these mounds were
probably not all built at the same time. The mound¬
building urge may have lasted for several centuries or
even longer.

Mound burials within this area were of four types:

(1) Flexed (buried in the flesh with knees drawn up
toward the chest) (Fig. 1 a).

(2) Cremated (partial and total).

(3) Bundle (body exposed until soft tissues disappear
and then bones interred) (Fig. 1 b).

(4) Extended (body buried at full length).

These burials may be in specially dug pits, on the floor
or in the body of the mound.

Conical mounds (Fig. 2 a) range in diameter from 4
or 5 to 10 feet. Burials are found near the center, and
are generally flexed and bundle, although extended and
cremated types occur.

Oval mounds (Fig. 2 b) are not so common as conical
ones, and may vary in size from 10 by 19 feet to 30 by
60, and in height from 1 to 3 feet. Interments are usually
of the same type as those contained in conical mounds,
and are in or near the center.

Linear mounds (Fig. 2 c) may be from 20 to 140
feet long, 11 to 25 feet wide, and 1 to 4 feet high. Burials,
most often of the flexed and bundle types, are usually
found anywhere along the major axis.

Effigy mounds (Fig. 3), occurring mainly in Wisconsin
and most frequently representing bears, panthers, or birds,

Indian Mounds

Fig. 1. a, Flexed burial; b, Bundle reburial; c, Etowah Mound group. After Moorehead.

Archaeology of North America

may range in length from 30 to 575 feet, and in height
from 1 to 3 feet. Burials occur in the heart position,
in the head, hips, shoulders, and between the hips and
shoulders.

It has frequently been claimed that effigy mounds
were built to represent totemic or clan symbols, but
there is no proof for this claim. Effigy mounds were
undoubtedly constructed by Indians possessing an Algon-
kin type of culture. The various animal and bird
forms may represent symbols or may merely be expressions
of artistic impulses.

Any one who thoughtlessly excavates a mound in the
hopes of obtaining some loot or of finding treasure will
find that he has done back-breaking work for nothing;
and, moreover, unless one has had special training, he
may do much damage and destroy valuable information.
All excavations should be done under the direction of a
competent archaeologist. Artifacts of any kind are rare
in mounds of the Great Lakes area, but one might find
a few, such as potsherds, copper artifacts (rare), pottery
tobacco-pipes, arrowheads, polishing stones, stone celts,
and bone artifacts.

An exception to the mound culture of the Great Lakes
region as described above should be noted. In western
Wisconsin there is a group of conical and oval mounds
recently excavated by an expedition from the Public
Museum of Milwaukee. The Indians who were responsible
for erecting these mounds must have been culturally
related to those who developed and continued a high
culture which centered in Ohio and which is known as
Hopewell culture. Hopewell culture was especially noted
for elaborate and well-executed copper ornaments, copper
ear-rings, bear-tooth ornaments, silver artifacts, and
peculiar copper celts. All these typically Hopewellian

Indian Mounds

Fig. 2. Mound Shapes, a, Conical mound; b, Oval mound; c, Linear mound. After
McKern.

Archaeology of North America

artifacts were found in this group of Wisconsin mounds,
which proves that they are an offshoot from the parent
culture in Ohio.

Mounds of the Middle and Lower Mississippi Area

It is impossible in a short space to give any detailed
description of the myriads of mounds within this area;
first, because not enough archaeological investigations
have been carried on; and second, because future work
will probably make it clear that there are several culture
sub-areas which may be linked with one another or with
Mexico. Brief reference will be made here to the large
or important mounds in Ohio, southern Illinois, Arkansas,
and Georgia.

1. OHIO

At the present time archaeologists have identified
three main types of culture within this sub-area: the
Adena, the Fort Ancient, and the Hopewell, the last
named of which was a highly advanced culture exhibiting
a remarkable degree of esthetic attainment.

The Adena culture, located in the southwestern part
of Ohio, is not sharply differentiated from the Hopewell,
but possesses some distinctive traits as follows: large,
well-formed, conical mounds, located near streams;
uncremated burials, which were placed in log sepulchres
either in the body of the mound proper, on the original
surface, or under the base line; copper ornaments; tubular
stone tobacco-pipes; mica ornaments; and arrowheads of
the ovate unnotched and the stemmed types.

The Fort Ancient culture, as represented in the
mounds, extends from the southwestern portion of Ohio
over into the adjacent states of West Virginia and Ken¬
tucky. The mounds proper occur near village sites, are
conical in form, vary in size from almost imperceptible

Indian Mounds

Fig. 3. Wisconsin Effigy Mounds, o, Panther; b, Canine; c, Flying water fowl;
d. Deer. After McKern.

Archaeology of North America

elevations to those of large size, and were used for burial
purposes. Some of the most notable characteristics of
this culture are permanent villages, free use of pottery,
abundance of bone and antler tools, and chipped flint
implements. Copper was used but rarely, as were also
mica, obsidian, and sea shells. Grooved axes and problem¬
atical objects are lacking.

The Fort proper as well as the Great Serpent Mound
has been attributed to the Fort Ancient culture, but
at present it is not certain to what culture or cultures
these great earthworks belong.

It has been suggested that the Fort Ancient culture
was developed by tribes belonging either to the Siouan
or Iroquoian linguistic families. More study of this matter
will have to be undertaken before it can be cleared up.

The Hopewell culture, which also may have been
developed by tribes belonging to the Siouan linguistic
family, was probably more highly advanced in some
ways than any other of the Great Lakes or Upper and
Lower Mississippi Valley areas. The following partial
list of traits may be considered as characteristic of the
culture: no regular village sites; geometric earthworks
with irregularly shaped mounds inside of or near them;
carved stone, bone (Plate VIII), and shell ornaments;
effigy tobacco-pipes (Plate I); well-woven, decorated tex¬
tiles; pottery of an inferior quality; abundant use of
copper for utilitarian objects and for ornaments, such as
head-dresses, breastplates, ear-rings, bracelets, finger
rings; designs cut out of sheet copper in life and geometric
forms (Plate II); mica ornaments; and large obsidian
blades or spearheads, the material for which may have
come from Yellowstone Park, as this rock does not occur
in Ohio.

Indian Mounds

The burial mounds, located either within the enclosures
referred to above, or near-by, were constructed over sites
where once stood ceremonial buildings. Burials in the
flesh or incinerated remains were placed within the
ceremonial structure, which, in some instances, was
intentionally burned. After the structure had served its
purpose, or after it was fired, a mound was erected over
it or over the charred remains.

So-called crematory basins are often found on the
mound floor. These crematory basins, consisting of small,
shallow pits with borders of puddled clay, are probably
too small to permit of cremation in the flesh, but might
conceivably have served for burning bundle burials.
Cremated bones are found but rarely in crematory basins.

The Hopewell culture or variants of it have been
noted in Kentucky, New York, Indiana, Michigan,
Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

2. THE CAHOKIA MOUND OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

Cahokia Mound, so-called because a tribe of that
name formerly lived near-by, and located in Madison
County, Illinois, just east of St. Louis, is the largest
prehistoric earthwork mound in North America. It is
situated in the alluvial plain of the Mississippi and

stands near the center of an area which contains five

• ■

groups of smaller mounds, all placed with a certain degree
of order in respect to one another. The large mound and
some of the smaller ones are now included in a state park.

The great Cahokia Mound covers an area of approx¬
imately sixteen acres. It may best be described as a
truncated pyramid, rectangular in form, with a broad
terrace or apron extending from the south side. The
sides of the mound are all well oriented with regard to
north-south, east-west points. The greatest height of the

Archaeology of North America

mound is 100 feet; the east to west width is 710 feet;
and the maximum north to south length, including that
of the terrace, is 1,080 feet. The purpose of this enormous
earthwork is not known, but it is believed that a ceremonial
wooden structure may have occupied the spacious upper
level. No thorough archaeological work has ever been
attempted on or in this mound.

Excavations of near-by mounds, some of which are
fairly large, yielded few skeletons, but brought forth some
evidence for the conviction that many of these earthworks
served as sites for buildings of some nature. The cemetery
which should accompany such a large site has not yet
been discovered. The pottery and artifacts found clearly
indicate that this culture is related in many ways to that
of the Lower Mississippi Valley.

3. MOUNDS OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

The mounds in this region, especially in Arkansas,
Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi, often attain great
size, and are generally flat- topped or truncated rectangular
structures or are conical in shape. The truncated type may
range in length from 100 to 900 feet, in width from 80
to 400 feet, and in height from a few to 80 feet. The
conical mounds may attain a diameter of 75 feet or more
and a height of 15 feet, although the average elevation
is about 5 feet.

In general it may be said that the high, truncated
mounds served either as places of refuge from floods or
as sites for houses and ceremonial structures or for both
purposes. Burials are sometimes found in this type of
mound.

The conical mounds generally yield more burials and
artifacts, and were practically never used as domiciliary
sites. Burials were likewise made in cemeteries adjacent

Indian Mounds

to the mounds. Five types of burials have been uncovered
in this area: extended, cremated, bundle (singly and in
groups), flexed, and urn.

Pottery occurs abundantly in the mounds and ceme¬
teries, and is the most skillfully made and artistically
decorated in North America, with the exception of that
from the Southwest area. Pottery-making here really
became an art. A great exuberance of forms is found
and includes painted or incised bottle-shapes, “ ‘teapot”
vessels, and effigy forms (especially human figures), as
well as unpainted, incised cooking pots, water jars, and
bowls, plain and painted. The colors used on the painted
ware are red, white, and orange-buff (Plate III).

Found associated with burials are carved ornaments,
beads and ear-plugs of shell, pottery tobacco-pipes, bone
pins, plummets of hematite, and copper-covered stone
ear-plugs.

4. THE ETOWAH MOUNDS

The great mound at Etowah (Fig. 1 c) is in the bend
of the Etowah River near Cartersville, Bartow County,
northwestern Georgia, and is next in size to the great
Cahokia Mound in southern Illinois. It is a rectangular,
flat-topped pyramid, about 60 feet in height, the diameters
of the base being 330 and 380 feet respectively. A long,
straight ramp which was built out on the eastern side of
the mound and connected the surrounding plain with the
summit, was the regular means of ascent. On this ramp
was built a stairway with timber treads held in place by
upright posts. On the south side is a low terrace, which
was formerly taken to be a roadway, but which apparently
was merely an incompleted addition to the large mound.

Surrounding this large mound, six smaller adjacent
ones, and the village space is a deep moat or ditch, which
developed gradually as tons of earth were removed for

Archaeology of North America

the erection of the mounds. It seems quite likely that
one end of this semi-circular ditch never connected with
the Etowah River, although the other end may have.

The largest mound has never been well tested. The
next smaller mound has recently been thoroughly exca¬
vated by Moorehead, who recovered a large quantity of
valuable archaeological material including pottery; frag¬
ments of textiles and matting; shell and pearl beads;
problematical chipped knife-like implements of flint, one
of which is 263 4 inches long; a monolithic ax (blade and
handle worked out from a single piece of stone); carved
stone human figurines; carved shell gorgets; copper badges
or symbols; and embossed copper plates.

The most recent evidence indicates that the builders
of the Etowah mounds were probably members of the
Muskhogean linguistic stock, which includes the following
tribes: Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Natchez, and Semi¬
nole. It would also appear likely that the Etowah culture
is related to that found along the lower Mississippi River,
and that it may have derived certain traits from Mexico.

It must be clear from the foregoing brief descriptions
of the burials in the mounds that no conclusions as to
culture affinities or as to the age of the mounds can be
drawn from the types of burial ; for apparently in different
parts of the whole upper and lower Mississippi Valley
and sometimes within a single mound, several burial
forms are encountered.

No definite dates have as yet been assigned to the
mounds, but it is probable that no great antiquity for
them will ever be revealed. From all the evidence at
hand it would seem that the oldest of the mounds were
built not over two thousand years ago and that the
mound-building complex, although waning, continued for
some time after the arrival of the Europeans.

IV. MANUFACTURE OF STONE ARTIFACTS

Materials

The materials used by the North American Indians
for manufacturing stone artifacts were varied, and were
chosen with foresight and intelligence born of long experi¬
ence, for the qualities best suited to the use to which
the finished product would be put. For example, an ax
intended for daily use would be made from some hard,
tough stone such as granite, rather than from a soft
material such as soapstone. Therefore, for the larger
implements that would be given rough usage (axes,
hammerstones, mauls, and so on) the following materials
were chosen, depending, of course, on what local rocks
were easily obtained: diorite, which is almost as hard
as quartz; syenite; granite; quartz; and rocks of approxi¬
mately the same hardness and compactness of texture.
Sometimes axes, hammers, and celts are found to be manu¬
factured from softer stones; in those instances, one must
conclude that better materials were lacking or that they
were made in haste to meet a particular emergency.

For smaller objects that required a cutting edge
(arrowheads, spearheads, drills, and knives) quartz, flint,
chert, quartzite (“sugar stone"), argillite, chalcedony,
obsidian, jasper, and slate were employed. There is
considerable confusion between the terms flint and chert,
and most arrowheads are called flint, whereas they may
be chert. Definitions vary greatly, but according to com¬
mon usage flint is an opaque, indistinctly crystalline
quartz dark gray or black in color; it generally breaks
with sharp conchoidal fractures. Chert is an opaque,
indistinctly crystalline quartz which is somewhat lighter
in color than flint (see Glossary, p. 111).

Archaeology of North America

Problematical objects were usually manufactured from
slate, but quartz, sandstone, granite, diorite, mica schist,
soapstone, and serpentine were likewise utilized.

Large quantities of partly worked stone were often
carried from the quarries to the camps and then buried
in caches to keep the stone fresh or “green,” since it is
claimed that fresh stone was more easily worked than
that which had been exposed to the air. These caches
served as reserve supplies and were drawn on from time
to time.

Processes

The processes of shaping stone into forms best suited
to the needs of the Indians have been divided into four
groups: (1) fracturing (breaking, flaking, and chipping);
(2) crumbling (pecking or battering) ; (3) abrading
(rubbing, scraping, polishing); and (4) perforating or
drilling.

1. METHODS OF MANUFACTURE OF CHIPPED
STONE IMPLEMENTS

There have been many misconceptions about the
method of chipping stone implements (arrowheads, spear¬
heads, drills, knives, scrapers, hoes, and so on; Plate IV).
One of the commonest errors in regard to this subject
finds expression in the idea that when an Indian wanted
to chip an arrowhead, he heated the material to be worked
and then dashed cold water on it! Needless to state,
this treatment would result only in some fractured or
shattered pieces of rock and would not produce even an
incipient arrowhead. However, it is possible that large
pieces of rock were broken into smaller ones by this fire
and water method.

The first process named, that of fracturing, is the one
that was most commonly employed in the manufacture

Manufacture of Stone Artifacts

Fig. 4. Manufacture of Stone Artifacts, a. Producing flakes with hammerstone;
b. Pressure chipping with bone point; c, Crumbling or pecking process. After Holmes.

Archaeology of North America

of arrowheads and spearheads, knives, drills, and scrapers.
There are many variations of this fracturing process, but
only the common ones will be described.

The first step in the making of an arrowhead, for
example, is the use of the percussion fracture process,
by which small pieces or flakes are chipped from large
stones. In knocking off such chips the hammerstone is
most frequently employed. A hammerstone might be
simply an unshaped river boulder, which for all intents
and purposes would serve very well (Fig. 4 a).

After several chips of suitable size and thickness for
arrowheads have been split off with a hammerstone, the
next process consists in secondary flaking by means of
pressure fracture or pressure chipping. It is not generally
known that many kinds of stone can be shaped by means
of pressure with a small tool of bone, horn, or ivory.
Nevertheless, a small, unshaped, thin blank can be con¬
verted with ease and dispatch into a well-shaped, sharp-
edged arrowhead.

This process of fracturing by pressure, which is particu¬
larly well adapted to the specialization and finishing of
arrowheads and spearheads, knives, and scrapers, is that
method which is used for chipping small, delicate flakes
from thin-edged blanks by applying abrupt pressure with
a bone or antler tool (Fig. 4 b).

One way of chipping by pressure may be described
as follows: The blank to be chipped, resting on a bit of
leather, is placed in the left hand and firmly held there
by the finger tips. The point of the bone or antler chipping
tool, guided by the right hand, is placed on the upper
side of the blank very near the edge, and by an abrupt
downward pressure a chip is removed from the under
side of the blank. This process is continued until the
arrowhead is shaped and provided with more or less

Manufacture of Stone Artifacts

sharp, delicate edges. A well-made projectile point,
knife, or scraper can be completely made from quartzite
in about five minutes and from obsidian in from two to
three minutes. A very long blade or agricultural imple¬
ment might require as much as thirty minutes for
completion.

Many projectile points that are to be seen in private
and museum collections are beveled on one edge, generally
the left. It is commonly supposed that the beveling was
intended to impart a rotary motion to the arrow when
in flight. Several tests were devised by the late Thomas
Wilson of the United States National Museum to check
this theory of rotary flight. More than a dozen bevel-
edged arrowheads were selected and attached to smooth,
straight, unfeathered arrow-shafts. Some of these arrows
w7ere dropped straight to the ground from the tower of
the Smithsonian building, and others were launched in
the air in every direction. He found that a rotary motion
was universal. In another test, with the same specimens,
he observed that a rotary motion was produced when the
arrowheads, which had been arranged in a kind of wire
holder which permitted longitudinal rotation, were pre¬
sented, points foremost, to a current of air produced by
a fan. Dr. Wilson concluded that, whatever the intentions
of the arrow-maker were, the beveled edges did produce
a rotary motion.

It should be noted that the feathering of an arrow
keeps the rear end of the shaft in the line of progress of
the arrowhead and produces rotation while in flight. If
the feathering is too heavy, greater air friction is produced,
and the loss of penetration due to the diminished velocity
is very appreciable. The arrow-shaft need not be feathered
if the foreshaft or head be heavy enough. However, the
most important thing to note is that the rotation of an

Archaeology of North America

arrow is not for increasing the violence of the wound, but
merely to assist in delivering the greatest blow, which is
only possible when the long axis of the arrow is in the line
of direct motion. An arrow which weaves or wobbles is
inefficient.

Most of the beveled projectile points are much too
long and heavy to serve as arrowheads. It is far more
likely that such implements were hafted and used as
skinning knives, since the bevel on the left side would
be pointed downward when the tool was grasped by the
right hand. Such a tool would be most useful for loosening
the hide of an animal. It might be well to note that the
average chipped object may have been utilized as an
arrowhead or spearhead, knife, scraper, or drill. It is
sometimes practically impossible to distinguish one type
from another.

2. MANUFACTURE OF AXES

Axes, celts, chisels, and other similar tools were
generally made by what is called the crumbling process.
This process may be defined as an operation in which
a hard, tough hammerstone is used to peck, batter or
crumble minute portions from the surface of a stone which
is sufficiently tough and compact to resist fracture from
an ordinary blow (Fig. 4 c). Naturally the crumbling
process was often preceded by the percussion fracture
process, and was followed by polishing, grinding, and
sharpening.

The only difference between an ax and a celt is that
the former is grooved for hafting, while the latter is un¬
grooved, shaped somewhat like a chisel, and often smaller
than an ax.

It is the belief of many people that it required weeks
and months to shape, peck, polish, and sharpen an ax.

Manufacture of Stone Artifacts

Indeed, one writer states that it often took more than
one lifetime to produce a stone implement of this variety.

Fortunately all the guesswork about this problem has
been removed by the experiments carried out by the late
J. D. McGuire in the United States National Museum.
He used tools similar to those of the North American
Indians, and all objects which he made were fashioned
entirely with the tools that he produced from raw materials.
He succeeded in pecking or crumbling stone with the
stone hammer, carving, polishing, rubbing, and boring
stone with the crudest of tools. He concluded that the
time required for manufacture of stone implements was
very short, especially if done by a skilled workman,
which he was not.

McGuire made a grooved ax by primitive methods
from a rough block of New Zealand nephrite, a very tough
mineral having a hardness of six (see Glossary, p. 111).
In the process of pecking or crumbling about one hundred
and forty blows a minute were given. The hammerstones
which he first used were quartzite pebbles found near
Washington, D.C. Most of these pebbles lasted no more
than ten minutes, and then were useless. Then he tried
hammerstones made from gabbro and gneiss; but these,
too, crumbled to pieces and were worthless. Finally, a
piece of compact yellow jasper from the Yosemite Valley
was produced, and about forty hours of work were per¬
formed with it.

After the specimen was roughly shaped, the pits were
removed by grinding for about five hours on a block of
disintegrated or rotten granite, which was kept wet. Then
a polish was attained by rubbing the ax for six hours
with a quartzite pebble, both dry and wet. Further
polishing was attempted by rubbing with wood and
buckskin, but without any effect. Thus, the manufacture

Archaeology of North America

of this ax from a rock which was harder than those
usually employed by the Indians and which in the begin¬
ning bore not even a rough semblance to the desired shape,
required a total of sixty-six hours, including pecking,
grooving, grinding, and polishing.

A second ax was made from a mineral called kersantite,
which has a hardness of three or four. It took less than
two hours to turn out a complete ax. The pecking in
this instance was done with a quartzite hammerstone,
and the polishing with a smooth quartzite pebble plus
sand and water.

It seems obvious, then, that if an inexperienced person
could turn out axes in a comparatively short time, an
experienced person could produce a creditable, serviceable,
grooved ax in from one to three hours.

But even after an ax has been fashioned, there is
always some question as to whether or not one could
really ever successfully cut anything with such a crude
tool as a stone ax. Fortunately, again, to this question
there is a direct answer furnished by practical tests on
cutting pine wood with primitive tools. These experi¬
ments were done by G. V. Smith of Copenhagen, Denmark,
and H. L. Skavlem of Lake Koshkonong, Wisconsin.

Smith, with a stone blade fastened to a wooden handle
in primitive fashion, was able to accomplish the following:

(1) To cut in two in three-quarters of a minute a
stick of fresh pine wood fixed perpendicularly to a work
bench. This stick measured about 2 Y/i inches (0.0555
meter) in diameter.

(2) To cut in two in ten minutes, under the same
conditions, a stick of pine measuring about 4 % inches
(0.1225 meter) in diameter.

(3) To cut in two in eight minutes a pine log measur¬
ing about 5 inches (0.13 meter) in diameter.

Manufacture of Stone Artifacts

Fig. 6. Problematical Objects, a, c, Banner-stones; b, Bar-amulet; d, Boat-shaped
stone; e, Discoidal; /, Bird stone. After Moorehead.

Archaeology of North America

(4) To mortise and tenon two bark-covered logs.

He concluded that it would be much easier to fell
standing trees than to chop them as he did at a work
bench; that not too complicated carpentry can likewise
be easily accomplished; and that a stone blade may be
used for several cuttings without damaging the cutting
edge to any noticeable extent.

Skavlem pecked, grooved, and polished an ax in four
and one-half hours, made a crude handle in a short time,
and cut down in ten minutes a water elm tree measur¬
ing three inches in diameter. The ax manufactured for
this purpose was a more elaborate specimen than really
was necessary, and probably cut no better than one which
might have been made in two hours or less.

Thus it should be clear that an ax can be produced in
a few hours and that as a cutting instrument it is
serviceable and fairly efficient.

3. MANUFACTURE OF PROBLEMATICAL OBJECTS

The term “problematical objects” is used to designate
all aboriginal implements the exact uses of which are not
known. This category specifically includes polished stone
objects often known as butterfly or banner-stones, bar¬
shaped stones, bird stones, boat-shaped stones, cones,
cupstones, chunkey stones, discoidals, gorgets, plummets,
pick-shaped stones, pulley stones, spools, spuds, tablets,
tubes, and winged stones (Figs. 5, 6). Such stone objects,
while fairly rare, are common enough to cause comment
as to their origin, use, and beauty, and are found on the
surface (sometimes in graves) from the Mississippi Valley
east to the Atlantic seaboard, Florida excepted. It is
not known exactly what tribe or tribes made these objects,
except that they are the handiwork of the American
Indians. Likewise their use or uses have never been

Fig. 6. Problematical Objects, a-d, Gorgets; e, Banner-stone; /, Plummet
Spatulate form; h, Tablet; i, Tubular pipe. After Moorehead.

Archaeology of North America

exactly determined, although there are almost as many
guesses and theories on this subject as there are different
forms. A few of these speculations will be given, as they
are both interesting and illuminating, and show what
diversity of opinion there is.

The butterfly or banner-stones have claimed more
attention than any other class, and therefore have been
singled out for a variety of possible purposes or uses. A
banner-stone (Fig. 5 a, c) may be described as a stone
object with a single, cylindrical perforation through the
short axis, and with two symmetrical, wing-like projec¬
tions on either side of the perforation. These projections
may resemble a double pick, a two-bladed ax, or two
broad butterfly wings. One thing is certain, and this is
that this type of implement, as well as most of the other
problematical objects, probably never served any practical,
everyday purpose, for it was usually made from a soft
stone which would have broken if handled roughly.

It is claimed that banner-stones may have been used as:

(1) Mesh gauges employed in making fish nets.

(2) Medicine stones.

(3) Charms symbolic of the whale’s tail and used in
religious ceremonies.

(4) Hair ornaments, if mounted on bone or wooden
pins.

(5) Weights for spear or javelin shafts.

(6) Spindle-whorls (a whorl is a flywheel for a spindle)
used in fire-making and drilling.

(7) Pipe-rests, to prevent pipe tipping over when
placed on the ground.

(8) Helmet ornaments.

(9) Money.

Manufacture of Stone Artifacts

(10) Baton or scepter heads, mounted and carried
as standards during ceremonies. This last surmise is
based on the discovery in North Carolina of three banner-
stones all mounted on engraved stone handles.

It will be seen that there are many opinions concerning
the use or uses of such implements; but the fact remains
that all opinions are guesses and as such are entitled to
no more consideration than any guess would receive. It
seems probable, judging from the kinds of materials used,
the care lavished upon their manufacture, and the gentle
usage to which most of them must have been subjected,
that banner-stones were probably used either as orna¬
ments, ceremonial appendages, or both.

The conceivable uses of the remaining types are many.
The gorget (Fig. 6 a-d), generally a flat, polished, stone
object of various shapes perforated in one or more places, is
sometimes called a pierced tablet, bowstring gauge, badge,
pendant, shuttle, twine-twister, bowstring guard, and
bull-roarer. It is generally assumed that gorgets were
purely ornamental and may have been worn around the
neck or sewn to clothes. However, these uses are
conjectural.

Bar-shaped stones, bird stones, and boat-shaped stones
were likewise generally perforated in one or more places,
and may have served a variety of purposes. It is probable
that these were employed as ornaments or as ceremonial
stones (Fig. 5 b, d} /).

Discoidals (Fig. 5 e), sometimes called chunkey stones,
are circular disks of stone, ranging in size from one to
eight inches in diameter and from one to six inches in
thickness. The faces or sides may be flat, concave
(hollow), or convex (bulging). A few of the discoidals
having concave sides may have served as paint mortars,
while others may have been used in a game called chungke,

Archaeology of North America

chenco, or chunkey (the traders' name for this game).
Chunkey was a man’s game played with a stone disk
and a long-forked pole. One of the players, who played
in pairs, would roll the stone ahead; then both players
would charge after the disk, and at the proper time would
try to slide their poles after the disk in such a way that
the disk would come to rest in the fork of one of the poles.

However, many discoidals would have been unfit for
chunkey stones or mortars. It is often difficult to decide
whether or not they should be classified as ornaments,
sinkers, club-heads, digging-stick weights, hammers,
polishers, pestles, or mullers; for in the course of their
manufacture they may have been used for any one of these
purposes.

Since these problematical objects are often so well
made and since they illustrate several processes of shaping
and working stone, especially the process of drilling, it
might be well to examine into the methods of their manu¬
facture. From a great many series found principally in
prehistoric quarries and on camp sites it is possible to
reconstruct the methods, as well as the successive stages,
in the manufacture of problematical objects.

The first step in the manufacture of a problematical
object, a banner-stone for example, was to quarry and
shape with a hammerstone a rough, rectangular slab of
stone, the length, breadth, and thickness of which corre¬
sponded approximately to the size of the finished product
which the lapidary had in mind. The edges of this slab
were first shaped with a hammerstone until the blank
began to take on the appearance of a banner-stone. Then
the sides were gradually pecked down to the desired thin¬
ness, and a centrum, through which the perforation was
to go, was marked off and permitted to maintain its
original thickness. Sometimes the holes were drilled

Manufacture of Stone Artifacts

Fig. 7. Methods of Drilling, a, Hand drill; b, Pump drill; c, Strap drill; d, Bow
drill. After Holmes.

Archaeology of North America

through the centrum after the hole was merely indicated
and the centrum shaped around it. After pecking had
reduced the edges to the proper shape and the faces or
sides to the correct thinness, the next process removed
all traces of the pecking hammer by means of scraping
with stone scrapers. Scraping was followed by polishing,
which was probably accomplished with sandstone or wood
and sand. Finally, if not already perforated, a hole was
drilled through the centrum or short axis.

Boring might be accomplished in one of two ways.
If a drill point of reed or tubular copper is employed,
the entire drilling operation may be done from one side,
and the resultant hole will be of uniform diameter through¬
out. If, however, a conical drill (drill with edges flaring
outward) is used, be it copper, stone, shell, bone, or wood,
it is easier to perforate a stone, especially if more than
one inch thick, if the hole is bored from both sides (per¬
foration made half from either side). This method pre¬
vents binding, and the resultant hole would be shaped
like an hourglass.

The kind of apparatus used for motivating the drill
point was probably the simple shaft or hand drill. This
type of tool is merely a straight shaft of wood, about
one-half an inch in diameter and varying in length from
ten inches to two feet. It may be provided with a drill
point of copper, stone, or bone. The shaft is revolved
in alternate directions by rolling it between the palms
of the hands. This mode of drilling seems to have been
widespread in North America (Fig. 7 a).

Among the Eskimo and some northern Algonkin tribes
two other modes obtained — the strap drill (Fig. 7 c) and
its close relative, the bow drill (Fig. 7 d). The operation
of the strap drill consists of twirling the drill in alternate
directions by means of a strap or cord which is wound

Manufacture of Stone Artifacts

once around the shaft and pulled first to the right and
then to the left. The shaft is kept in position by means
of a mouthpiece or with the aid of a helper. The bow
drill operates in almost the same manner, except that
the shaft may be steadied by the left hand, while the
right saws a bow back and forth, thus causing the shaft
to revolve in alternate directions. These two methods
are vastly superior to the simple shaft drill, because the
number of revolutions may be increased to such an extent
and because greater pressure may be imparted to the
shaft.

The pump drill (Fig. 7 b) is a mechanical device for
drilling that is much more efficient than the other types
described above. There is some doubt as to whether or
not it was ever used in North America before European
colonists arrived. A pump drill consists of a thin, wooden
shaft about two feet long on which a disk (of wood,
stone, pottery, or bone) is fastened near the lower end
of the shaft and to the end of which is affixed a drill
point. A bow or crosspiece, which is perforated in the
center and to the ends of which are attached a bowstring
tied to the upper end of the shaft, is lowered and raised
on the shaft, which runs through the perforation of the
bow. As this bow is quickly lowered, the shaft revolves,
which unwinds the bowstring. The downward pressure
is then relaxed; the impetus of the disk, which functions
as a flywheel, is sufficient to wind the string up on the
shaft in the reverse direction. Then the whole operation
is repeated. After a bit of practice, the pump drill may
be operated so quickly that the shaft hums as it revolves
in alternate directions.

It is commonly assumed that the boring of the problem¬
atical objects must have consumed untold hours of

Archaeology of North America

labor, especially if a hole had to be drilled through some
of the harder materials, such as quartz or granite.

Happily, ali doubts and guesses on this subject have
been removed by the late J. D. McGuire who performed
at the United States National Museum a series of experi¬
ments on the drilling and manufacture of problematical
objects. A brief list of the results of his experiments,
which are not only instructive but interesting, is as follows:

(1) In drilling catlinite, stone or metal points cut
readily if the edges of the points were kept rough.

(2) Bone and wooden points tended rather to polish
than to cut, although points made from ash wood cut
fairly well if used with dry sand.

(3) A guide hole, pecked into the surface, was found
necessary when drilling with tubular or hollow drills.

(4) Water was worse than useless in boring catlinite,
for a cement formed when the catlinite dust and the
water united.

(5) A typical stone drill point was not practicable
in boring a hard stone, because unless held perfectly
upright it would snap in two. It would serve, however,
in drilling wood or as a gimlet.

(6) In using a metal drill point on most stones (cat¬
linite excepted) water might be employed to prevent
choking and clogging, and sand might be added to help
increase the rate of progress.

(7) Water also helped float off the powdered material
of most of the harder stones — an action which permitted
the sand to be kept in contact with the surface to be cut.

(8) To keep the point supplied with sharp sand, a
jumping motion was efficacious when a pump drill was
employed.

Manufacture of Stone Artifacts

(9) The rapidity with which a drill cut depended on
the velocity. Pressure was likewise important, although
too much pressure crushed the sand or broke the point
of the drill.

(10) Boring a hole from opposite sides was easier.

(11) McGuire drilled a hole in marble three-eighths
of an inch deep with pump drill and tubular copper point
in fifteen minutes; another in a stone (of approximately
the same hardness as quartz) one and one-half inches thick
with a pump drill and a stone point in three hours; and
a hole in catlinite (about as hard as slate) five inches
deep with a pump drill and first a point of jasper and then
of ash, in three hours.

(12) McGuire made a problematical object of the
banner-stone type from steatite in five hours. This time
included pecking, polishing, and drilling with a pump
drill and a drill point of wood. This object measures
about six inches across and two and one-quarter inches
thick. He also manufactured another problematical
object of the banner-stone class from siliceous sandstone
(quartzite?) in three hours. This included shaping and
drilling.

(13) McGuire concluded that the majority of problem¬
atical objects could be made in less than three days.
Some of them could be completed in much less time,
as he demonstrated.

Thus, the processes of shaping stone artifacts have
been briefly described and illustrated. These may be
summarized as follows: the percussion fracture process
was chiefly employed for removing flakes or blanks from
larger masses of rock; the pressure fracture process for
chipping, flaking, and shaping blanks into arrowheads
and spearheads, knives, scrapers, and drills; the crumbling
process for shaping stone axes, mauls, corn-grinding

Archaeology of North America

stones, wedges, chisels, celts, gouges, problematical objects,
mortars, pestles, and so on, by pecking or crumbling
with a hammerstone; the abrading process for grinding,
whetting, scraping, and polishing axes, problematical
objects, celts, gouges, wedges, and others; and the per¬
forating or piercing process for drilling ceremonial objects,
bone, shell, and stone beads, tobacco-pipes, and wooden
objects.

V. MINING, MANUFACTURE, AND USES OF
COPPER IMPLEMENTS AND ORNAMENTS

Mining

Copper ornaments and implements are frequently
found in private and public collections of Indian artifacts.
It has been a source of wonder and comment among
collectors and other interested people to know where
the copper for tools and ornaments came from and how
it was obtained and worked.

When Europeans first explored and settled the St.
Lawrence River and Great Lakes regions, they observed
that copper implements were used, and they heard,
upon inquiry, of great deposits of this metal which were
to be found “to the west.” It is evident from the earliest
accounts of French and English explorers that the Indians
wrere at that date (about 1650) still mining copper from
the Lake Superior region although in limited quantities;
for after the advent of the whites it was far easier for the
Indians to obtain iron and brass implements and utensils
and guns by trade than it was to mine and manufacture
copper objects.

Native copper (that is, almost pure copper found in
nature and often containing traces of silver and iron)
occurs in small quantities in many places in North
America, but the largest deposit and the one which prob¬
ably furnished most of the copper used in prehistoric
times is that located on the Keweenaw peninsula of
northern Michigan and to some extent on Isle Royale.
The Indians knew of this immense deposit as well as a
smaller one near the Coppermine River, northwestern
Canada, and both were worked to a considerable extent.
As the Lake Superior or Michigan copper plays the more

Archaeology of North America

important role in the aboriginal copper industry, it is the
only one treated here.

When the term “mining” is used, it is with a special
significance, for the Indian never mined in our sense of
the word (that is, with tunnels, shafts, explosives, and
powerful cutting tools). An aboriginal copper mine
(Fig. 8 a) was nothing more or less than a shallow trench,
which was dug into the side of a hill with the floor at the
entrance or beginning of the cut low enough to provide
natural drainage. These trenches were rarely if ever
more than twenty-four feet deep and might be two
hundred feet long. Sometimes, of course, the excavation
was merely a pit, in which case it was not more than
seven or eight feet deep. The mining of the Indians
might best be described as prospecting.

Naturally, with only the crudest methods of mining
at their disposal and with no knowledge of smelting or
of stamping (a process which crushes copper-bearing rocks
into tiny particles so that the grains of copper can be
separated from the rock by washing), the Indians were
interested only in pieces or veins of copper large enough
to be easily detached from the matrix. Mass copper was
frequently encountered. There is a record of one such
mass weighing 5,720 pounds which had been detached
from the rock by the Indians, but abandoned in the bottom
of the pit, because there was no way of cutting such a
huge piece into smaller ones. Before abandonment, how¬
ever, all projecting pieces and irregularities were removed
with stone hammers.

The mining operations were crude and primitive, but
may be fairly accurately reconstructed from a thorough
knowledge of what the ancient mines look like and what
tools and other evidences of work remain. In all of the
old workings were found marks of fire on the walls of

Copper Implements and Ornaments

the pits, masses of wood ashes and charcoal, countless
grooved and ungrooved stone mauls and hammers weighing
from five to twenty-five pounds, a few copper implements,
wooden bowls, and wooden paddles. The latter, which,
if found near water, would have been unhesitatingly
called canoe paddles, were probably used as shovels for
moving back the rock refuse. The wooden bowls may
have been used for bailing out the mine, but in all likeli¬
hood were used for quite another purpose.

From the evidence at hand, the method of mining
was probably as follows: The process consisted of first
heating the rock around the copper by building fires on
the outcrops. The rock heated in this manner was then
cracked and partially disintegrated by contraction pro¬
duced by the sudden dashing on of water. Any bits of
rock adhering to the copper were knocked off by stone
mauls and hammerstones. This process would account
for the quantities of ash and charcoal found within the
ancient mines, the fire-marks on the walls, and the wooden
bowls which undoubtedly were used when water was
dashed on at the proper moment, when the rock had
become sufficiently hot.

Not all the copper used in the central, eastern, and
southern parts of North America was mined. Some of
it, perhaps much of it, was picked up in the regions which
had been covered at one time by glacial drift. These
pieces of copper so found, ranging in size from small
nuggets to large masses of fifteen hundred pounds or more,
were torn by glacial action from the parent veins of the
Lake Superior region, transported great distances, and
deposited on the surface when the snow and ice melted.
Such pieces, found at a distance from the Lake Superior
source, are commonly called “float” or “drift” copper,
and are still reported from Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois,

Archaeology of North America

Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Many copper implements and ornaments were doubtless
manufactured from such pieces of float copper. Lake
Superior unworked copper must have been traded great
distances, for copper ornaments are found in Florida, and
were probably made from copper found in the Lake
Superior region, although there is a possibility that some
native copper was obtained from the Appalachian
Mountains or from Cuba.

Manufacture of Copper Tools and Ornaments

There exists a very common but fallacious idea that
the Indians possessed a secret process for so hardening
or tempering copper that their knives, axes, chisels, and
wedges were as hard and sharp as steel. Nothing could
be farther from the truth. Such a belief is unfounded.
No copper object of Indian handiwork has yet been found
that has a greater hardness than can be imparted by
cold hammering; there is no process yet known to metal¬
lurgists which will temper copper, nor did the Indians
know of any such procedure. Many pieces of copper
obtained from burial mounds or from aboriginal camp
sites have been chemically analyzed, and no trace of any
tempering agent was ever reported. In fact the analyses
show that the percentages of pure copper in the specimens
examined is from 99.650 to 99.913, plus traces of silver,
iron, cobalt, arsenic, and nickel. These figures clearly
indicate that the aboriginal inhabitants of North America
knew nothing of smelting (that is, the process of recovering
copper from copper ores by the aid of heat and the employ¬
ment of fluxes and carbon), tempering, or hardening by
alloying copper with other metals. Annealing and cold
hammering were the two methods practised, both of which
will be explained in this chapter.

Copper Implements and Ornaments

- — . — &

Cl- , — . - - _ ?2

Fig. 8. a. Cross section showing pits made by Indians in mining copper; b, Method
of graving copper plate with horn tool; c, d. Method of severing figures from copper
plate by grinding. After Cushing.

Archaeology of North America

If one were to plot a map of North America to show
the distribution of types of copper objects, one would see
that in the eastern and southern portions copper was
principally utilized for ornaments (Plate II) and in the Wis-
consin-Illinois-Michigan and adjacent areas, copper was
employed almost exclusively for objects of a utilitarian
nature such as celts, arrowheads and spearheads, picks,
gouges, wedges, awls, fishhooks, harpoon-heads, knives,
and drills (Plates V, VI).

These implements were all cold wrought; that is, they
were hammered from cold nuggets with the aid of a stone
hammer. Later they were sharpened and polished with
rough grinding stones. Fortunately for these Indians,
copper is very malleable and ductile, and therefore easily
yields to such manipulation. Beating native copper adds
to its hardness by compressing the regular network formed
by the molecules of the crystals. Experiments at Peabody
Museum of Harvard University were undertaken to ascer¬
tain whether copper tools could be manufactured with
nothing but primitive tools and with no heating. The
results proved that copper implements (except ornaments)
could be reproduced without the aid of heat.

Many collectors attempt to distinguish between a
very ancient copper tool and one of more recent origin
by the amount of corrosion which is apparent. Such a
criterion for estimating the age of a copper object is
useless, for the amount of corrosion which collects on
copper objects varies according to the method of manu¬
facture, the soil conditions in which they are found, and
perhaps other factors not yet fully understood.

Many of the copper ornaments recovered from the
mounds of Ohio, Georgia, Florida, and elsewhere exhibit
amazingly intricate, regular, and artistic designs as well
as a surprising neatness of finish (Plate II). It was

Copper Implements and Ornaments

believed that the Indians, lacking knowledge of casting
and steel tools, could not have manufactured such beautiful
copper ornaments merely with implements of stone and
bone. Several experiments were therefore made in order
to ascertain whether or not copper ornaments, such as
were found in Indian mounds, could be manufactured
from native or pure copper with tools of a primitive
nature only, such as stone hammers, bone chisels, and
an open fire. The results of these experimental efforts
prove that such primitive methods as were used by the
Indians were quite adequate enough to produce elaborate
and well-executed copper ornaments. The results of two
of these experiments will here be briefly described.

The late Frank Hamilton Cushing of the Bureau of
Ethnology was an anthropologist who was intensely
interested in primitive processes and methods of manu¬
facture and who, from his intimate daily life with certain
Indians, developed a remarkable skill in primitive practices.
Cushing started his experimental studies in primitive
copper working on the assumptions that the first workings
in copper were influenced directly by other antecedent
arts, such as work in stone, bark, skin, and horn; that
annealing (the process whereby copper is made more
elastic, tougher, and less brittle by heating it and then
plunging it into cold water), an important factor in beating
native copper into thin sheets, was undoubtedly suggested
to the Indian coppersmiths by the fact that heat was
resorted to in analogous processes; namely, in working
hides and horn, as well as in straightening arrow-shafts,
and in mining copper and in disintegrating portions of
rock adhering to drift copper. At any rate, the process
of annealing was probably generally known. Even the
northern Athapascans, a people of low cultural status,
were reported in 1771 as understanding this procedure.

Archaeology of North America

In making a plate of sheet copper, the experimenter
found that a soft metal like copper if hammered slantingly
will spread and behaves in general as rawhide does. A
rough stone maul of granite or quartzite aided in thinning
and spreading the metal by displacing the surface mole¬
cules at many points. This mode of treatment pitted
the face of the metal which was thereby toughened and
was not so much in danger of scaling or cracking as it
would be if a smooth-faced iron or steel hammer had been
used.

When the metal was reduced to the desired thinness,
all large irregularities were removed with a smoother
stone, and the surface then ground and scoured with a
flat piece of sandstone.

To reproduce the figure of an eagle in sheet copper
such as was found in a mound, Cushing first softened his
sheet of copper by annealing it. After lightly tracing
the eagle pattern on one face of the metal plate, he placed
the latter on a mat of buckskin which was laid on a level,
hard piece of ground. The design was then etched or
graved into the copper plate by means of a long, pointed
tool of buckhorn butted against the chest of the worker,
who applied sufficient pressure to make the graving tool
sink into the soft metal (Fig. 8 6). This simple treat¬
ment produced sharp, smooth grooves, wherever the horn
point had been applied. On reversing the plate, the design
was clearly exhibited in raised outline or embossment.
The tips of these outlines or ridges, which formed the
eagle pattern, were then ground crosswise with a flat
piece of sandstone, and after seventeen minutes were
finally cut through (Fig. 8 c). The eagle form as outlined
by the graving was thus entirely severed from the plate.
The portion from which the design had been cut resembled
the open spaces of a stencil.

Copper Implements and Ornaments

Cushing concluded from his experiments that he had
never heard of or seen a single object of copper which he
could not reproduce from native or nodular copper with
only primitive tools and methods.

C. C. Willoughby, director emeritus of the Peabody
Museum, Harvard University, likewise performed an
experiment in working native copper with primitive tools
only. Two trials were made to form copper sheets from
native copper, both of which were successful. The first
sheet was hammered from a copper nugget recovered
from the interior of an Indian mound of Ohio, and the
second from a piece of native copper obtained from the
Lake Superior region. Only one attempt was made to
make an ornament from a sheet of copper thus produced,
and the result was eminently satisfactory. Aside from
the fact that the ornament which Mr. Willoughby formed
is uncorroded and therefore shows no age, one could not
tell the difference between his product and the original
which he so carefully copied.

It was decided to reproduce an ear ornament because
the process involved using all the steps necessary in
making any object of copper; namely, hammering,
annealing, grinding, cutting, embossing, perforating, and
polishing.

A sea beach strewn with waterworn stones was the
scene chosen for the experiment. The piece of native
copper obtained from the Lake Superior region was placed
upon a smooth stone which served as an anvil, and was
beaten with a stone hammer. After a few blows the
copper began to crack about the edges. This difficulty
was overcome by annealing (heating and cooling suddenly).
A thin sheet was finally produced by means of careful
hammering and repeated annealing, and was ground
down to a uniform thickness between two flat stones.

Archaeology of North America

The sheet was cut into a circular form by cutting partly
through the metal with sharp flints and breaking off the
unnecessary pieces. The rough edges wrere filed down by
means of grinding stones.

Willoughby assumed that the original ear ornaments
which served as his copies were made over a mold, because
the disks forming the ornament were practically alike in
size and contour. Therefore, he made a mold of the
proper shape from a piece of driftwood by charring, scrap¬
ing, and cutting with sharp flints. The copper disk was
then laid over this mold and gently forced into shape by
light hammering and pressure from a pressing tool made
from a splinter of bone found on the beach. During this
molding process it was again necessary to resort several
times to annealing. The perforations in the ornament
were made with a rude flint used as both a drill and a
reamer. A final polish was administered by means of
fine sand and wood ashes. This practical demonstration
convinced Willoughby that any copper object found in
mounds or on camp sites could have been made by the
primitive processes known to the Indians.

Some of the copper ornaments found in various parts
of the eastern and southern United States are so well
made that some investigators have wondered whether or
not these copper objects were made in Europe and traded
to the Indians after the discoverv. Others, who did not
doubt but that the ornaments were objects of Indian
handiwork, believed that the copper plates from which
the ornaments were made may have been produced in
Europe and then traded to the Indians. There is little,
if any, doubt but that both of these views are wrong.
The whole matter was settled some years ago when
Clarence B. Moore clarified and solved these problems
by submitting a number of genuine Indian copper artifacts

Copper Implements and Ornaments

to competent chemists for analyses. The results of Mr.
Moore's study are as follows:

(1) Native copper is much purer than any copper
recovered from ores by the smelting processes known in
Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

(2) Copper which is only 99 per cent pure is considered
a very poor article; so a difference of .3 or .4 per cent makes
all the difference between a good and a bad grade of copper.
For example, a piece of Indian sheet copper made from
native copper contained 99.913 per cent copper; whereas
a fragment of copper of European manufacture, which
was traded to the Huron Indians, yielded only 98.97
per cent copper, thus showing the large difference of
.943 per cent between native American copper and
European smelted copper.

(3) European smelted copper always contains a
large amount of impurities, such as lead, iron, nickel,
arsenic, silver, antimony, and bismuth; whereas native
copper from North America never shows a trace of lead,
and but minute traces of silver, arsenic, nickel, and cobalt.

Moore concluded that all the copper ornaments and
tools obtained from Indian mounds were made by the
Indians from native copper, because, chemically, native
copper is infinitely purer than that obtainable by European
processes of smelting which were in use in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries.

VI. BONE AND SHELL WORK
Bone Work

Bone and similar materials, such as horn, ivory,
whalebone, turtle-shell, teeth, hoops, beaks, and claws,
served such an infinite variety of uses and were so com¬
monly employed all over North America for every con¬
ceivable sort of object both utilitarian and ornamental,
that it is well-nigh impossible to include in this section
a description of all bone objects. A short summary will
suffice.

Bone tools and ornaments were easily and quickly
manufactured with the aid of stone tools, such as knives,
drills, scrapers, saws, and grinders. A list of the most
common uses to which bone was put would include awls,
needles, fishhooks, pins, arrow-points, harpoons, cutting
and scraping tools, tool handles, and chipping implements.
Flutes, whistles, and instruments for imitating animal
calls were also made from bone. The shoulder blades of
large animals, such as the elk, buffalo, and deer, were
extensively employed throughout the areas where agricul¬
ture was practised as digging tools in planting work.
Dippers, cups, and ceremonial head-dresses were fre¬
quently prepared from horn.

Because polished bone is so pleasing to look at, agreea¬
ble to feel, and easy to produce, it was used to an extraor¬
dinary extent in the manufacture of bone ornaments
(Plate VIII), such as pendants, gorgets, hairpins, wrist¬
lets, necklaces, and bracelets. Teeth, claws, and small
bones were likewise utilized as ornaments.

Dice, gaming sticks, and other game paraphernalia
were fashioned from the teeth, the large bones, and the
many small foot-bones and hand-bones of animals.

Bone and Shell Work

In northern North America, where wood is scarce or
absent, bone as a workable and fairly plentiful material
was seized upon by the tribes of that region as a substitute
for wood. In this remarkable adaptation, bone became
very important and was put to many and extraordinary
uses. Whale ribs served as the framework for houses,
caches, and shelters; as the ribs of boats; and as the runners
for sleds. Bone, ivory, and antlers were invaluable for
making clubs, boxes, picks, scrapers, knives, harpoons
and harpoon shafts, spears, and bows and arrows. Further¬
more, these same materials were utilized for the manu¬
facture of tobacco-pipes, toys, dolls, amulets, beads,
pendants, hairpins, and combs, and for weaving, netting,
and sewing tools.

Although wood was plentiful on the Northwest Coast
(British Columbia and Vancouver Island) and was used
extensively by the tribes of that region, bone likewise
was employed for many objects, such as cups, ladles,
spoons, clubs, awls, ornaments, and charms. In southern
California, especially on the Catalina Islands, where stone
axes and celts were never manufactured or used, clubs
and chisels were fashioned from whalebone. Needless to
state, bones, claws, skulls, and teeth were often employed
in making up “ ‘medicines” and in warding off disease,
trouble, and danger.

Shell Work

Rocks and minerals were commonly used by all North
American aborigines, and copper by many tribes; but
considerable effort had to be expended to obtain these
natural materials. Shell, on the other hand, abounds in
regions near oceans, lakes, and streams, is easily obtained,
lends itself to an almost endless variety of uses, and was
eagerly sought in trade by groups of Indians living at a
distance from the natural supplies. Therefore it is not

Archaeology of North America

surprising that shell objects of one kind or another are
more commonly recovered from ancient house sites and
graves than any other articles.

The uses to which shell was put fall roughly into two
groups — utilitarian and ornamental, and ceremonial. It
would be impossible to describe here at length all ways
in which shell was employed; merely a brief outline is
given.

Unworked clam, scallop, and mussel shells served as
cups, dippers, and vessels (Fig. 9 h). Large conchs were
cut up and made into adzes, gouges, scrapers, and celts.
The latter were employed, for the most part, for scraping
and removing bark from tree trunks and for working wood.
In the regions near the Atlantic seaboard large clam shells
served as agricultural implements. Along the Pacific
coast fishhooks made from abalone shells are frequently
recovered from ancient graves and shell-heaps (Fig. 9/, g).

Shell ornaments were more generally worn perhaps
than any other kind, and are most frequently encountered
in archaeological investigations (Fig. 9 a). Shell pins are
often found in many places in the southern, eastern, and
western portions of North America. This class of orna¬
ments was manufactured by dint of much exertion and
skill from the rod or central pillar of conch-shells. Al¬
though their use is unknown, they were probably highly
valued and may have served as hair ornaments, awls,
bottle stoppers, gaming pieces, or ear ornaments (Fig.
9 b-e).

By far the most common type of shell ornament was
made of beads, which were fashioned from almost every
kind of shell. Some beads were made from small, whole
shells, pierced for suspension ; others from small pieces cut
from the most easily worked portions of abalone, clam,
scallop, and mussel shells; still others from the rod or

Bone and Shell Work 83

Fig. 9. Shell Work, a, Carved shell ornament; b-e, Shell pins; f-g, Shell fish¬
hooks; h, Shell vessel. After Holmes.

Archaeology of North America

central axis of conch-shells. Shell beads may be divided
into two types — discoidal or flat (Fig. 10 b) and tubular
or cylindrical (Fig. 10 c). Their functions may be classed
as necklaces, hair ornaments, neck-bands, ear-pendants,
and bracelets; as ornaments for decorating baskets, bags,
and clothes; as mnemonic devices (aids for memory or
reminders) for recording and recollecting tribal history,
law, and treaties; and as currency or wampum (Fig. 10 d).

An interesting account of the use of strings or belts
of beads as memory devices of tribal councils is given
by G. H. Loskiel, a missionary of the eighteenth century:

“Four or six strings joined in one breadth, and fastened
to each other with fine thread, make a belt of wampum,
being about three or four inches wide, and three feet long,
containing, perhaps, four, eight, or twelve fathom of
wampum, in proportion to its required length and breadth.
This is determined by the importance of the subject which
these belts are intended either to explain or confirm, or
by the dignity of the persons to whom they are to be
delivered. Everything of moment transacted at solemn
councils, either between the Indians themselves or with
Europeans, is ratified and made valid by strings and
belts of wampum. Formerly, they used to give sanction
to their treaties by delivering a wing of some large bird;
and this custom still prevails among the more western
nations, in transacting business with the Delawares. But
the Delawares themselves, the Iroquois, and the nations
in league with them, are now sufficiently provided with
handsome and well-wrought strings and belts of wampum.
Upon the delivery of a string, a long speech may be made
and much said upon the subject under consideration,
but when a belt is given a few words are spoken; but they
must be words of great importance, frequently requiring
an explanation. Whenever the speaker has pronounced

Bone and Shell Work

Fig. 10. a. Use of paddle and anvil in manufacture of pottery; b, Discoidal shell
beads; c, Tubular shell beads. After Holmes, d. Parts of Iroquois wampum belts in
Field Museum, Hall 4, Case 2.

Archaeology of North America

some important sentence, he delivers a string of wampum,
adding, ‘I give this string of wampum as a confirmation
of what I have spoken'; but the chief subject of his dis¬
course he confirms with a belt. The answers given to a
speech thus delivered must also be confirmed by strings
and belts of wampum, of the same size and number as
those received. Neither the color nor the other qualities
of wampum are a matter of indifference, but have an
immediate reference to those things which they are meant
to confirm. The brown or deep violet, called black by
the Indians, always means something of severe or doubtful
import; but the white is the color of peace. Thus, if a
string or belt of wampum is intended to confirm a warning
against evil, or an earnest reproof, it is delivered in black.
When a nation is called upon to go to war, or war declared
against it, the belt is black, or marked with red, called by
them, the color of blood, having in the middle the figure
of a hatchet in white wampum. . . . They refer to them as
public records, carefully preserving them in a chest made
for that purpose. At certain seasons they meet to study
their meaning and to renew the ideas of which they were
an emblem or confirmation. On such occasions they sit
down around the chest, take out one string or belt after
the other, handing it about to every person present, and
that they may all comprehend its meaning, repeat the
words pronounced on its delivery in their whole convention.
By these means they are enabled to remember the promises
reciprocally made by the different parties; and it is their
custom to admit even the young boys, who are related
to the chiefs, to their assemblies; they become early
acquainted with all the affairs of the state; thus the con¬
tents of their documents are transmitted to posterity, and
cannot be easily forgotten."

Bone and Shell Work

Another and interesting use of belts of beads or
wampum in the marriage proposal is given by Frank G.
Speck:

“We are come on an important sacred errand, as it
must be everywhere, because, whenever a young man
commences to live, there surely comes time when he
settles upon a woman to become his companion. So now
one [young man] has settled upon your daughter. Now
I can only say that our young man, Sable, is a good man.
I never saw him in any wrong-doing. I can only say
that he is a good man and can do everything. He is an
expert hunter and canoe builder.” (Then the delegate
puts the wampum in the woman’s [mother’s] lap.) “When
you are ready, answer us.”

The mother remained quiet until the delegate was
gone. Then she summoned the relatives, and the marriage
proposal was considered. The discussion which followed
was concerned with the characters of the girl and her
suitor and with the important question as to whether or
not the two young people were compatible and whether
they would be happy. It was necessary that all the
living relatives be present at the discussion, so that in
the event a negative answer had to be rendered, the whole
group would share the responsibility of offence in the
eyes of the suitor’s family. If a favorable answer were
given, the following is an example of what would have
been said:

“Wherefore we come to answer you. We all know
that whenever any one selects his own companion for
life, it must be done very carefully because, when two
people marry, they must remain together as long as they
live. Therefore it is necessary to be very careful so that
the pair may be contented in mind and happy as well. . . .
Now the relatives of our girl have gathered and not one

Archaeology of North America

there has seen anything whatsoever wrong in the behavior
of your young man. Now we give you a final answer.
We accept your young man. The matter is now in your
hands. Whenever you are ready, what you wish may
take place.”

One of the most interesting uses of shell beads or
wampum was as currency or a medium of exchange. It
is not precisely known whether or not the Indians employed
shell beads as money before the advent of Europeans;
but very early in the historic period shell beads were
commonly used as a means of barter.

The oldest wampum seems to have been strings of
flat or discoidal (button-like) beads, which because of
technical limitations could not easily have been woven
into belts. Strings of such wampum originally served,
probably, merely as ornaments, and as such were highly
valued and much prized. In historic times, cylindrical
or tubular beads came into vogue, probably because with
the aid of European steel tools it was easier to manufacture
such a type, and probably because such beads could easily
be woven into belts having patterns and designs produced
by alternating the beads light and dark in color. Most
people who are familiar with the term wampum think of
it as signifying the tubular or cylindrical forms; but
discoidal beads, whether they are the older type or not,
should also be associated with it.

The discoidal beads were generally manufactured from
the central rod or column of conch-shells by means of
protracted efforts and much mechanical skill. The tubular
beads were likewise generally fashioned from the same
portion of conch-shells, but, if made in prehistoric times,
the methods employed are not exactly known. There are
some authorities who feel that such beads were too diffi¬
cult for the Indians to make, since they had no steel tools;

Bone and Shell Work

but it would seem, at first blush, that if they had desired
to manufacture them, it would have been quite within
the range of their technical skill and development.

Wampum finally became so important as a currency
that it might be worth while to state a few facts about it.

In the first place, it is probably inconceivable and
certainly astonishing to people of the present time to
learn that shell money was used in trade, not only among
the Indians themselves, but also between them and the
whites. One might wonder how shells could have any
value as money, especially when it is realized that any
one could procure the shells and turn out wampum
beads. It must be clearly understood, however, that,
although wampum was not like gold and was not backed
by the promise of any government to pay in gold or other
precious material, it was more sought after by the Indians
than was gold, primarily because gold had no particular
connotation of value to them and because wampum could
be used as ornament and in many other ways. Moreover,
shell money was generally acceptable, a condition which
permitted its use as currency. There is also the fact that
it took considerable time, effort, and skill to produce
good and acceptable wampum, and thus in the wrought
state the supply was at first limited. It is recorded that
a trader wishing to buy skins or supplies from the Indians
would probably be able to trade with them only if he used
wampum money, as gold coin or bullion was not desired.
Wampum therefore was legal tender in many places along
the Atlantic seaboard, until the Dutch, thinking to profit
thereby, imported machinery and proper tools and pro¬
duced such quantities of it that the value sank and finally
about 1700 wampum ceased to have value as currency.

The legal value of wampum fluctuated considerably
from time to time. In 1637, in Connecticut, four wampum

Archaeology of North America

beads were given a legal value of an English penny. In
Massachusetts, in 1648, it was decreed that wampum,
provided it was well made, should pass as legal tender to
the amount of forty shillings. Eight white beads and
four black were given the established value of an English
penny. Later, the value fell and in 1662 it took twenty-
four white beads or twelve black to equal an English penny.

In addition to its uses as ornaments, mnemonic devices,
and currency, wampum belts likewise served as message-
bearers, messages of condolence, announcements of death,
fetishes, and pledges of honor.

Shell money was apparently used on the Pacific coast
before the settlement of the whites. There were four
kinds of shell used for currency; namely, dentalium
(mollusk) or tusk-shells, clam-shell disks, olivella or snail
shells, and abalone shells. In the early trade with Euro¬
peans, tusk-shell money had the following value: a string
of eleven tusk-shells was worth $50.00; and a string of
fifteen, $2.50. Clam-shell disk money was worth approxi¬
mately $1.00 a yard. Olivella shell money was also valued
at $1.00 a yard. Abalone shell was used for the most
part as jewelry, but sometimes a single long piece of shell,
cut, perforated, and polished, sold for $1.00.

VII. POTTERY
Distribution

Pottery-making was an art which flourished over the
greater part of southern North America, with one or two
notable exceptions. According to C. Wissler, if a line be
drawn on a map of North America from Los Angeles to
Edmonton, Canada, from there to Ottawa, Canada, and
from Ottawa to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River,
it will be found to form approximately the northern
boundary of the pottery-making territory. It should be
noted that within the area thus defined there is a strip
running through the eastern parts of Montana, Wyoming,
and Colorado, where pottery was rarely manufactured or
used, although potsherds have been reported from eastern
Colorado.

Outside of the pottery area of North America as
defined above there are two localities where pottery¬
making was practised — that of the Yokut Indians of the
San Joaquin Valley, California, and that of the Eskimo
Indians of western Alaska. These two localities are
removed from the large pottery-making area. These
notable exceptions may perhaps be explained by the fact
that the Yokuts may have received the pottery-making
stimulus from the Indians of the southwestern area
through the influence of certain Shoshonean neighbors
(the Mono, Ute, and Paiute Indians), and the Eskimo
from the eastern Siberian pottery-making tribes.

Thus it will be seen that the tribes of the greater part
of the Pacific coast region, including California, Oregon,
Washington, and British Columbia, as well as Canada,
probably never made or used pottery; and that most, if
not all, of the tribes south of the Los Angeles-Edmonton-

Archaeology of North America

Ottawa-St. Lawrence boundary knew the art of making
pottery.

Manufacture

The methods of making pottery varied somewhat in
different localities and will be briefly given. The first
and most important thing to note is that in North America,
so far as is known, the potter’s wheel was never used for
the manufacture of pottery.

There were five methods of making pottery, as follows:
(1) the coil method (Plate VII); (2) the coil method used
in conjunction with the paddle and anvil; (3) the paddle-
and-anvil method (Fig. 10 a); (4) the method whereby
pottery was molded in holes in the ground; (5) the method
whereby pottery was molded over forms or in baskets.

The first method mentioned, the coil method, was
practised among many tribes of North America, especially
the west Alaska Eskimo, the Mono, the Hopi and Rio
Grande Pueblo Indians, the Navaho, the Caddo, some
Louisiana tribes, the Catawba, the Cherokee, and probably
the New England Algonkin tribes, as well as the Iroquois.
The coil method of making pottery, as its name implies,
makes use of long strips or coils of clay which are employed
as follows: The potter first forms the base of the future
pot either by pressing it out of a lump or pat of properly
tempered paste or clay, or by using the end of a roll of
clay which is coiled on itself and worked into the proper
shape; the base thus formed is then generally placed in
a shallow basket or pottery dish in which the growing
vessel rests. Then the potter builds up the walls of the
pot by the addition of strips or rolls or ropes of clay,
which are often long enough so that they will extend
around the top more than once, thus producing a spiral
effect; or which are laid successively one upon the other.
The obliteration of these coils and of finger-prints is

Pottery

generally done with a piece of gourd, a shell, or a smooth
stone. To make the whole mass complete, to weld together
the coils, and to eliminate any air-bubbles which may
have formed, the potter pinches the rolls at every possible
point.

The second method named above, the coil method used
in conjunction with a paddle and an anvil, is essentially
the same as the first, except that the coils are rarely
applied spirally but merely for one circuit of the edge,
and that a paddle and an anvil are employed to thin, com¬
press, and weld the coils. The paddle is of wood and
usually consists of a short handle and a blade about four
or five inches square. The anvil may be merely a smooth
stone or a mushroom-shaped, convex-faced piece of baked
clay usually provided with a short stem or handle. When
used, the face of the anvil is pressed against the inside
of the vessel's walls to resist the blows administered with
the paddle on the outside of the pot. It is reported that
pottery made by this method was found among the
Cocopa, Mohave, Cahuilla, Luiseno, Pima, Papago,
Diegueno, Havasupai, and Ute; and was made by the
prehistoric peoples of the Middle and Lower Gila River
district of Arizona.

The third method, the paddle-and-anvil, is essentially
different from the first two methods in that no coils or
sausage-like ropes of clay are used. This method as
practised among the Arikara Indians of North Dakota
is best described by M. R. Gilmore as follows:

“The potter took a quantity of the clay, sufficient for
a pot of the size she had in mind. She placed a flat
bowlder for use as a working table on a hide spread on
the ground, the hide being for the purpose of catching
any of the loose crushed stone that might fall from the
stone working table, so that it might be gathered again

Archaeology of North America

for use. She took the lump of clay on the stone table,
thoroughly kneaded it with her hands, and mixed with
it what she judged to be a proper amount of the crushed
stone for tempering. Now she shaped the tempered clay,
working it out from the bottom upward to the top. When
she had approximated the shape of the pot, she took in
her left hand a smooth, round cobblestone, which she
inserted in the pot. In her right hand she took a wooden
tool like a flat club, eight or nine inches long, with which
she beat the clay against the shaping stone held in the other
hand. *When she had drawn up the clay to the proper
shape and sufficiently thin, she applied the desired pattern
of decoration by incision with a small pointed and edged
wooden tool, or by pinching and crimping the edge of
the pot with thumb and finger.”

Beating pottery from masses of clay by this method
was also practised by the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Yankton
Dakota Indians of the Plains area. Pottery anvils have
been reported from Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky,
Alabama, and Wisconsin, but whether this fact necessarily
implies that pottery was beaten from lumps of clay or
not is a moot question. Some authorities believe that in
the general area about the Great Lakes, pottery was made
exclusively by the paddle-and-anvil method, but this
problem is still undecided.

The fourth method of making pottery, that of using
a hole in the ground, is reported from the Winnebago.
The Winnebago are said to have made pottery by molding
it with their hands or by plastering clay on the sides of
holes of the desired shape dug in the ground and lined
with leaves. This method is highly improbable, and the
account of it may merely be the product of the Indians’
imagination.

Pottery

Cushing performed many experiments in making
pottery by a method similar to the one just given. How¬
ever, he found it necessary to sink a piece of netting in
the hole so that the pot could be lifted out afterwards.
When Cushing used the term "pot-shaped pit,” he meant
a pit the bottom of which was smaller than the top or
mouth. He writes as follows:

"On returning home, I gathered clay and a quantity
of sand. With the latter I made a pot-shaped pit like
those I had discovered the faint remains of, rubbing thick
clay-water around its perimeter to make the bottom and
sides firmer, and keep the vertical portions from caving
in. I allowed this form to dry. In the course of only
two or three hours it had become comparatively hard.
I then mixed clay-paste with which to form, inside of the
pit, the walls of a vessel. Whilst the bottom and the
lowermost portions of the sides of an incipient vessel
could thus be formed with great ease, I soon found that
it was nearly impossible to cause the thin wall of clay to
adhere and thus retain its position higher up. It then
first occurred to me that strips of bark, or fiber, or netting
might be pressed into the pit and used not only to hold
the clay in place around its sides whilst being built up,
but also to aid in lifting the green vessel out when fashioned
for drying. I therefore roughly netted together some
coarse cordage in the form of a bag of suitable size and
introduced this into the pit. The first experiment made
proved a failure. When I had built up the clay nearly
to the margin of the form, its sides collapsed inward, netted
cordage and all. Again I proceeded as before, this time,
however, weighting the edge-strings of the bag down to
the surrounding surface with rocks. I succeeded perfectly
in fashioning the vessel; but on endeavoring to draw it
out found, of course, that it would be necessary to lift

Archaeology of North America

evenly on all the edge-strings, else the still soft vessel
would give way or at best be utterly distorted when taken
out of its mold, by the unequal strain of the strings. It
very quickly occurred to me that these difficulties could
be overcome by attaching the strings to a hoop, then
lifting the vessel out by means of that. Following this
plan, I succeeded completely. The vessel left its bed
easily, retaining its shape at the bottom and sides perfectly,
but both the net and the hoop happened to be too small,
hence the rim was puckered in by the tautness and
indrawing of the strings near the edge and was thereby
considerably contracted. ... I managed, however, by
scraping the inside of this rim with clam shells, to at
once thin it and restore its roundness without causing it
again to enlarge. . . . After smoothing the outside of
the vessel here and there where its weight had caused the
cords (especially at the bottom) to cut into it and form
protruding lumps or bulges between the meshes, I
suspended it to a couple of poles, supported horizontally,
and left it to swing and dry in the wind and sun. Thus
exposed, it set within an hour or two, becoming so firm
that I successfully removed, by a sort of gradual peeling-
off process, as one takes off a tight glove, the netted bag
in which it had been suspended. After it had been slightly
dressed down and welded where necessary by more scraping
inside and out, with clam shells, I was surprised and
delighted to find that its general surface presented almost
the exact appearance of the outer surfaces of the sherds
I had been finding, save that the textile impressions were
coarser in my specimens than in the ancient ones/'

There is some doubt as to whether this method was
actually ever used, but it must be considered as a
possibility.

Pottery

The fifth method whereby wooden forms or woven
baskets were utilized for making pottery is reported from
several tribes, but the exact distribution of such a method
or the extent to which it was employed is, like the preceding
one, unknown at present.

The Osage of Missouri are reported as gathering clay,
beating it to a fine powder, mixing it with water and
finally spreading this paste over blocks of wood of various
shapes. When the paste dried, the pots were removed
from the molds and fired to be rendered hard. They
likewise coated the inner surface of rush or willow baskets
with a proper thickness of clay. When dried, the clay-
lined basket was fired, a process which destroyed the
basket-form, but baked the pot.

The Pawnee are said to have made pottery in a similar
way, except that they were accustomed to smooth off
the end of a tree for a mold.

Baking or firing was resorted to by all North American
pottery-makers with the exception of the early Basket-
makers of the Southwest. This is a process necessary
for hardening the vessels so that they may be more easily
handled and may be used for holding or carrying water.
It is obvious that without such treatment the clay would
quickly disintegrate. The process of firing generally took
place after the pottery had been dried in the air for several
hours, and the method used varied from place to place.
In general, however, it consisted of surrounding the
vessels as evenly as possible with burning fuel (bark,
dried wood, or dried dung). Very often a preliminary
fire was built, and, when it had died down, the vessels
to be baked were inverted directly upon the hot coals
and ashes or on some sort of grate, which formerly prob¬
ably consisted of stones, but now may be constructed
from iron rods or worn-out stone grates. The hot coals

Archaeology of North America

and ashes were pushed up around the pots, and then
the entire mass covered with fuel. After a proper time
elapsed (thirty to sixty minutes), the vessels were pulled
out, deposited near the oven and thus allowed to cool
slowly.

Decoration

Painted pottery had its highest North American
development in the Southwest (Utah, southern Colorado,
New Mexico, and Arizona), where red, buff, chocolate,
black, white, orange, and yellow pigments were used
separately or in striking combinations of two or three
colors such as red, black, and white, or red and buff.
Outside this area, however, painted pottery is somewhat
limited in its distribution, being confined for the most
part to the middle and lower Mississippi Valley regions,
the Gulf coast, and Florida. A few pieces have been
reported from Ohio, southern Illinois, the Aztalan site in
Wisconsin, and eastern Tennessee and Kentucky. There
seems little doubt that the impulse for decorating pottery
with color came from the Southwest area. It is not with¬
out some significance that the greatest diversity in painted
decoration in eastern North America was developed among
the potters of the Arkansas region, a locality that borders
rather closely on the Southwest.

The colors used in the Arkansas and adjacent regions
were generally red, white, and brown. Judging by the
pigments used in the Southwest, it is probable that red
was produced by using a clay mixed with yellow ochre,
which turns red on firing; white, by employing only a
white clay free from iron oxides; and brown, by using
the proper quantity of red iron oxide, which turns brown
on firing. These colors were applied with brushes made
from plant stems or possibly from bird feathers.

Pottery

In the northern part of the pottery area, where painted
vessels are rare or entirely lacking, pottery was either
perfectly plain, smooth, and unpainted, or was ornamented
merely with incised designs on a plain and unpainted
background.

The term incised designs is a broad one which covers
several types of cut-in or intaglio ornamentation, which
are as follows:

(1) Incised design — executed presumably with a
sharp-pointed implement.

(2) Trail design — a broad, shallow mark done pre¬
sumably with a blunt or round-pointed tool.

(3) “Roulette” design — horizontal, vertical, or diag¬
onal repetition of a simple design.

(4) Stamped design — applied probably with a carved
wooden paddle or with a pottery stamp.

(5) Cord-marked design — impressed with a cord-
covered paddle or, as Cushing suggested, by cord nets
in which the vessel was built, or by netting wrapped
around the hand.

(6) Fabric-marked design — applied with a fabric-
covered paddle or otherwise impressed on the clay while
it is soft.

(7) Punctate or embossed design — punctate when
punched in with a pointed tool; embossed when raised or
pushed up from the surface of the vessel. Very often
a punched-in design will be punctate on one surface and
embossed on the reverse, because the punching-in may
produce a knob or stud.

(8) Thumb-marked or finger-nail design.

Naturally there are other ways of ornamenting a
vessel without having recourse to pigments, such as

100

Archaeology of North America

indented or crimped rims and designs in relief. In the
lower and middle Mississippi Valley regions there occur
many vessels modeled to represent animal, human, and
grotesque forms. Likewise, in many parts of the Missis¬
sippi Valley, Gulf coast, and Florida regions are found
handles or rim decorations modeled to resemble animal
or human forms. Some pottery from the southern and
southwestern areas of North America may bear both
color and incised or relieved decorations on one vessel.
The application of color and of incised and relieved designs
was generally done before the vessel was fired, although
the incised decorations on some pottery look as if they
might have been engraved after the firing took place.

Pottery Types

Since the Southwest culture area is not included in
this handbook, a description of its pottery is omitted
here.

There is one broad distinction which applies to most
of the pottery of eastern, northern, and southwestern
North America; namely, that most of it bears some sort
of incised (intaglio) or relieved designs; whereas the
pottery of the Southwest is rarely ornamented in this
fashion.

It is impossible to give briefly all the ear-marks which
characterize, distinguish, and set off one from another
the potteries of the various regions of eastern North
America; therefore, but a few of these peculiarities will
be given.

In a very broad and general way it is possible to divide
the pottery of the territory east of the Mississippi Valley
into two classes — that of the southern part and that of
the northern part of North America. Naturally, it is
not possible to draw a line from east to west, south of

Pottery

101

which one will invariably find elaborate pottery, and
north of which one will always find simple pottery,
because there exists a transitional zone where are found
wares from both regions at one site. However, to gain
a panoramic view of this subject, it is safe to state that
the term "southern North America” means all that region
east of the Mississippi Valley and south of southern
Nebraska; northern Missouri, central Illinois, Indiana,
Ohio, central West Virginia, and Virginia.

The pottery of the southern area varies somewhat
from place to place, but one or more of the following
characteristics occur: painted surfaces and decorations;
varied shapes such as high, narrow-necked bottles, deep
bowls, and plates; modeled pottery representing human,
animal, and grotesque forms; flat bottoms as opposed
to pointed; legs; incised ornaments consisting of frets,
scrolls, and curves; and engraved symbolic or realistic
designs (Plate III).

The pottery of the northern area differs materially
from that of the southern. The following list presents a
few of the most important and general characteristics of
the wares of the northern area: no painted surfaces or
designs; simple, straight-line, or fabric ornamentations;
mostly conical or pointed bottoms; no animal, human,
or grotesque shapes; no legs; and vessels nearly all wide¬
mouthed and globular.

It has been customary heretofore to divide the pottery
of the northern area into two groups: the Algonkin and
the Iroquoian. Whether or not this broad classification
is a helpful one is a question open to debate. It is quite
likely that this arrangement is too extensive to be of
much practical use to students of ceramics and that it
will be found necessary to make further divisions. For
example, it has been possible to place Wisconsin pottery

102

Archaeology of North America

in four different groups — Algonkin or Lake Michigan
ware, Siouan or Upper Mississippi ware, Aztalan ware
(a variant of Cahokia pottery), and Hopewell ware.
However, a tabular list of the older classification is
given here for what it is worth :

ALGONKIN POTTERY

(1) Globular-shaped.

(2) Pointed or conical bases.

(3) Broad, low neck, with flar¬
ing rim, or no neck and straight
or slightly contracted rim.

(4) Coarse texture.

(5) Stone tempered.

(6) Manufactured by coil
method, paddle-and-anvil meth¬
od, or by a conjunction of both
methods.

(7) Simple geometric patterns
incised or imprinted with cord
or fabric decorations.

(8) Inferior ware.

(9) No painted surfaces or de¬
signs.

(10) No life forms.

IROQUOIAN POTTERY

(1) Globular-shaped.

(2) Rounded bases.

(3) Slightly restricted neck,
with overhanging or incurved rim ;
or square mouths, with pointed
corners and sagging margins.

(4) Fairly smooth texture.

(5) Shell and stone tempered.

(6) Manufactured by coil
method.

(7) Curvilinear and rectilinear,
geometric, punched, or stamped
designs.

(8) Superior ware.

(9) No painted surfaces or
designs.

(10) Life forms frequently
modeled on sides or rims of
vessels.

VIII. POPULAR FALLACIES CONCERNING
THE AMERICAN INDIAN

The North American Indian has figured largely in
the conquest, history, and expansion of the United States.
It is not surprising, therefore, that he has become a some¬
what legendary person, cursed and denounced as being
a cruel, bloodthirsty, dirty, and lazy ogre by some;
defended and extolled as being a chivalrous, kindly,
noble red man by others. Needless to state, neither
conception is correct or fair. Indians are human beings
with all their faults and virtues. Some were undoubtedly
dishonest, cruel, and war-like; but in many instances the
Indians had to resort to cruel, retaliatory raids, in order
to defend themselves, their families, and lands from an
ever-increasing flood of white settlers who were determined
to grab what lands they could and to push the Indian
off the map.

Therefore, it may be interesting as well as profitable
to examine a few of the popular but incorrect ideas con¬
cerning the American Indian, his way of living, his
philosophy, and the implements which he has left behind.

It was the custom of some Indian tribes to deform
their heads by artificial means. Very often such deforma¬
tion was unintentional and was caused by a hard cradle
board which pressed against the skull of the infant. In
other instances, the forehead was intentionally flattened
by means of pressure from a board or by means of bandages
or wrappings. Intentional head-flattening was probably
practised because it was the custom to do so and because
the result was considered smart, fashionable, and becoming.
However, it has been stated that this custom was practised
so that the Indians could spy from behind trees or peek
over logs without displaying their heads as a target

103

104

Archaeology of North America

for the enemy to shoot at. Such a notion is manifestly
absurd.

Stone drill points, described on page 66, are sometimes
called hairpins. It is extremely unlikely that the drills
which are to be seen in many private and public collections
were ever used in that manner. Their function was for
boring holes.

One often hears that arrowheads and spearheads were
chipped by means of fire and water. As stated on page 50,
such a method would be positively disastrous and would
not produce any sort of implement.

The Indians possessed no secret process for tempering
copper. They did harden it somewhat by beating and
pounding it.

Legend has it that the American Indian was taciturn.
Doubtless some Indians were reserved, but, on the other
hand, many of them were gay, friendly, fond of jokes,
and talkative.

It is sometimes stated that an Indian suffered less
from torture than a white man would. Such an idea arose
from the accounts of early travelers who related blood¬
curdling tales of the various torments which Indian braves
underwent in ceremonies. Many of the ordeals required
by tribal custom were painful. They were borne uncom¬
plainingly, not because the victims enjoyed being tortured
or because they were incapable of feeling suffering, but
because they were proud to exhibit self-command and
personal strength in this manner. It is to be remembered
that among certain religious fanatics in the Old World
it was also customary to show one’s fortitude as well as
utter contempt for pain by various sorts of self-torture.
Therefore, such stoicism was a matter of training, pride,
and philosophy rather than insusceptibility to or liking
for torture.

Popular Fallacies

105

Indians were supposed to possess extraordinarily keen
senses which enabled them to see farther, and hear and
smell better than could whites. Such differences are
probably more imaginary than real. Tests have shown
that keen vision may be largely due to practice in inter¬
preting familiar objects. The same may be said of hearing
and smelling. Special interests and training would account
for many of the feats of the Indians in hearing and smelling.
White people who have lived with the Indians for many
years have developed as keen a sense of vision, hearing,
and smelling as the Indian was supposed to enjoy.

It has often been stated that Indian men were lazy
and allowed the women to do all the hard work. Among
most tribes the division of labor was strict and fair. To
the women fell the duties of caring for the children,
tending the crops (where agriculture was practised),
cooking, erecting the habitation, preparing skins, and
making basketry and pottery (where pottery was made).
To the men were allotted the tasks of hunting, fishing,
trapping, defending the camp, and making war, all of
which were dangerous, exhausting, and time-consuming
duties.

All sedentary groups of Indians were supposed to
have been agriculturists. However, the sedentary tribes
who inhabited the Pacific coast region did not practise
agriculture, but subsisted on roots, berries, acorns, fish,
and game.

In addition to these more common fallacies concerning
the American Indian, a few more have recently been
pointed out by C. Amsden:

A mysterious race lived in America before the Indians
came. Races of giants and pygmies once lived in North
America. Disease and illness were almost unknown in
ancient times. Every scratch made by primitive man

106

Archaeology of North America

has a meaning; every figure or design created by him,
a symbolic meaning. Indian pictographs are a system
of writing which will one day be deciphered and tell
wonderful tales. All Indians understand and frequently
use the expressions How! Ugh! papoose, and squaw .

Most of these ideas have sprung from ignorance,
garbled stories, or misunderstanding and misinterpretation
of Indian customs and manners. Needless to state, they
are incorrect. However, because many of the ideas given
here are embodied in novels, poems, and essays about
the American Indian, and because it is often difficult to
know which is fact and which is fancy, these fallacies and
erroneous impressions are submitted. It is hoped that
these explanations will aid in branding these legends as
false and in expunging them from people's minds.

IX. EXPLANATION OF HALL OF NORTH
AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY IN FIELD MUSEUM

The exhibits in Hall B, devoted to North American
archaeology, have been arranged and grouped so as to
illustrate the archaeological material from most of the
culture areas described in chapter II. No attempt has
been made to distinguish between that which is very old
and that which is less so.

In visiting this hall one should start from the southwest
corner, near which the model of an Illinois mound stands,
and first examine the material on the right or south side of
Hall B; then cross over and examine the exhibits on
the north side of the hall proceeding from east to west.
This will bring one back again to the west entrance of
the hall, and a complete circuit will have been made.

All cases on the entire south side of the hall, as well
as one in the northeast corner, are devoted to collections
from Area 11, the Mississippi- Ohio area (see Map, p. 19).
The arrangement is as follows:

Case 1. — Grave of Illinois Mound-builder (against
west wall).

Case 2. — Stone agricultural implements, arrowheads
and spearheads, drills, problematical objects, and pot¬
sherds from southern Illinois.

Case 3. — Stone celts, axes, knives, scrapers, fleshers,
tobacco-pipes, beads, and problematical objects from
southern Illinois.

Cases If. and 5. — Painted and unpainted pottery from
southern Illinois and northern Arkansas.

Case 6 . — Painted and unpainted pottery from Arkansas.

107

108

Archaeology of North America

Case 7 . — Ornaments of skull and bone, ear-plugs,
tobacco-pipes, arrowheads and spearheads, knives, and
scrapers from Arkansas.

Case 8. — Drills, knives, scrapers, arrowheads and spear¬
heads, pottery, and problematical objects from eastern
Missouri.

Case 9. — Pipes, bear-tooth ornaments, mica objects,
and necklaces of pearls, shells, and bone beads; copper
celts, ear-plugs, ornaments, and head-dresses from the
Hopewell Mounds, Ohio.

Case 10. — Model of Serpent Mound, Ohio.

Case 11. — Ceremonial blades of obsidian, large chipped
flints, quartz artifacts, potsherds, bone and copper bead
necklaces, pipes, textile fragments, and bone tools from
the Hopewell Mounds, Ohio.

Leaving the Mississippi-Ohio area and proceeding
westward along the north side of Hall B, the following
cases illustrating material from other culture areas are
encountered :

Case 12. — South Atlantic area (area 12). Arrowheads
and spearheads, problematical objects, and pottery.

Case 13, east half. — North Atlantic area (area 8).
Arrowheads and spearheads, knives, scrapers, potsherds,
shell necklaces, bone tools, stone celts, and gouges.

Case 13, west half. — Iroquoian area (area 7). Arrow¬
heads and spearheads, knives, scrapers, tobacco-pipes,
and potsherds.

Cases 15-18. — Great Lakes area (area 6). Material
from Michigan, northern Indiana and Ohio, northern
Illinois, and Wisconsin; copper implements, including
fishhooks, punches, celts, gouges, arrowheads and spear¬
heads, chisels, beads, awls, knives, and harpoons; also

Hall of North American Archaeology

109

stone objects, such as arrowheads and spearheads, drills,
knives, scrapers, celts, grooved axes, tobacco-pipes, prob¬
lematical objects, adzes, spades, and hoes; also potsherds
and shell ornaments.

Case 19, east half. — Northwest Coast area (area 3).
Stone adzes, chisels, hand-hammers, and pile drivers.

Case 19, west half. — Columbia-Fraser Rivers area
(area 4). Small agate arrowheads, spearheads, drills,
scrapers, knives, and stone sinkers.

Case 20. — California area (area 9). Shell beads, fish¬
hooks, dishes, bone wedges and chisels, digging-stick
weights, problematical objects, knives and scrapers,
tobacco-pipes, baking slabs, mullers, ceremonial blades
of obsidian, charm stones, pestles, and steatite bowls.

The Arctic, Canadian, and Plains areas are not repre¬
sented, since the archaeological material is so scanty;
and the Southwest area is omitted, because it is repre¬
sented in Hall 7.

Case 21. — This case, in the entryway of the hall,
contains a special, synoptic exhibit that is designated
“Distribution of types of archaeological objects in North
America.” The purpose of this exhibit is to illustrate
some of the important types of artifacts found in North
America and to show by means of special maps the dis¬
tribution of each type or group of objects. In each instance
the term for an object is given, with synonyms if any.
No reference is made to use, because this is explained on
the labels in the other exhibition cases.

The purpose of the Hall of North American Archae¬
ology is not merely to exhibit the handiwork of the North
American Indians, but to illustrate their history as well
as their methods of living as worked out under various
geographical and cultural environments. The collections

110

Archaeology of North America

on display were not gathered solely because of interest
in the objects themselves. They were acquired with great
effort and at much expense in an attempt to save from
destruction the priceless and imperishable remains of
peoples who left no written records, because it is from these
concrete remains that the history of the Indians may be
reconstructed. Collecting specimens because of their
beauty or rarity rather than because of their inherent
historical value is no better than collecting stamps. What
is worse, if such collections are undocumented and uncata¬
logued, many valuable historical data are forever lost.

Therefore it is hoped that this exhibition of prehistoric
North American material will aid the public in obtaining
a historical perspective of the American Indian; and that
it will stimulate those who possess or collect archaeological
specimens without records or facts as to where, how, and
when found, to gather henceforth all information possible
about the material already housed in their cabinets, and
to make no further addition to their collection unless
everything concerning its history is known and vouched
for. Further, it often happens that after a collector's
death his collection is divided among uninterested people
or may even be cast away. If the collection should chance
to be presented to a museum or university, it is often
worthless because the specimens are not accompanied by
any information. If the specimens are worth collecting
and saving, they are worth taking care of; and provision
should be made to have them left to an institution where
they will be catalogued and preserved and where they will
help future students and collectors.

GLOSSARY

Annealing copper. A process whereby copper is made more
elastic, tougher, and less brittle by heating it and then plunging it
into cold water.

Arrowhead. The sharp-pointed, detachable end of an arrow,
generally two to two and one-quarter inches long. Specimens longer
than this may have served as knives or spearheads.

Artifact. Any object manufactured by human beings; applied
especially to distinguish between natural objects and those made
by human workmanship.

Ax, stone. A sharp-edged implement made from some hard,
resistant stone, provided with a groove near the top for hafting, and
used for cutting or possibly killing purposes.

Ax, fluted stone. An ax with one or more parallel grooves or
flutings, which may be longitudinal or diagonal. These flutings
served no purpose so far as is known, and were probably ornamental.

Banner-stones (Fig. 5 a, c ). See Problematical Objects.

Bar-shaped stones (Fig. 5 b). See Problematical Objects.

Bird stones (Fig. 5/). See Problematical Objects.

Boat-shaped stones (Fig. 5 d). See Problematical Objects.

Butterfly stones (Fig. 5 a, c). See Problematical Objects.

Celt. An ungrooved ax of stone or metal.

Chert. An opaque, indistinctly crystalline quartz usually geologi¬
cally older and somewhat lighter in color than flint proper.

Chunkey stone (Fig. 5 e). A circular-shaped stone, ranging in size
from one to eight inches in diameter and from one to six inches in
thickness, with flat, convex, or concave faces, used in a game called
chungke, chenco, or chunkey.

Conchoidal. Having shell-shaped depressions and elevations.

Cone. See Problematical Objects.

Cupslone. See Problematical Objects.

Discoidal stone (Fig. 5 e). A disk-shaped stone with a double-
convex or double-concave face; may have been used as a mortar or
as a chunkey stone. See Problematical Objects.

Flint. An opaque, indistinctly crystalline quartz dark gray or
black in color.

Gorget (Fig. 6 a-d). See Problematical Objects.

Haft. To supply with a handle.

Hardness of minerals. See Scale of hardness.

“Killed” pottery. Pottery with a hole punched in it is said to
have been “killed,” because the spirit of the vessel was supposed
thereby to have been released.

Native copper. An almost pure copper found in nature and in
many cases containing traces of silver and iron.

Ill

112

Archaeology of North America

Patina. A patina is any compact, adhesive coating covering
certain objects. This crust is formed by surface alteration due
to aging. Patina does not necessarily imply great antiquity.

Pick-shaped stones (Fig. 6 e). See Problematical Objects.

Plummets (Fig. 6/). See Problematical Objects.

Potsherd. Any broken piece of pottery or earthenware.

Problematical Objects. Term used to designate all aboriginal
artifacts the exact uses of which are not known. This category
specifically includes polished stone objects often called banner-stones,
butterfly stones, bar-shaped stones, bird stones, boat-shaped stones,
cones, cupstones, chunkey stones, discoidals, gorgets, plummets,
pick-shaped stones, pulley stones, spools, spuds, tablets, tubes, and
wing-shaped stones.

Pulley stones. See Problematical Objects.

Scale of hardness. Used to test the hardness of a substance by
comparing it with a standard series of minerals of different grades
of hardness. Herewith are given ten minerals arranged according to
their increasing hardness (after Moh): (1) Talc (softest in scale).
(2) Gypsum. (3) Calcite. (4) Fluorite. (5) Apatite. (6) Feldspar.
(7) Quartz. (8) Topaz. (9) Corundum. (10) Diamond (hardest in
scale).

Slip. A thin wash of fine, liquid clay applied to the surface of
a vessel to give a colored coating (often white, red, or orange).
Colored designs are then painted on the slip when dry.

Spearhead. Any projectile point over two and one-half or three
inches long.

Spools. See Problematical Objects.

Spuds (Fig. 6 g ). See Problematical Objects.

Tablets (Fig. 6 h). See Problematical Objects.

Tempered pottery. When pottery is made the potter often mixes
with the plastic clay tempering ingredients, such as sand, pulverized
rock, or shell. The use of some tempering material serves a very
definite purpose. Pure clay, when baked, tends to crack. Hence,
these tiny foreign particles check the progress of the flaws or breaks
and prevent them from running in ruinous, straight lines.

Traits, cultural. A cultural trait is any single element or any
individual part of human behavior or activities. For example,
pottery-making is a cultural trait. Likewise, the use of bone wedges,
of copper, of the throwing-stick, and of stone gouges may be termed
cultural traits.

Tubes (Fig. 6 i). Sometimes used as tobacco-pipes. See Problem¬
atical Objects.

Wing-shaped stones (Fig. 6 e). See Problematical Objects.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

By Authors

Amsden, Charles

Some Popular Misconceptions about Primitive Peoples and Their
Studies. The Masterkey, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles,
California, VI, No. 2, 1932, p. 2.

Baer, J. L.

A Preliminary Report on the So-called “Bannerstones.” American
Anthropologist, XXIII, 1921, pp. 445-459.

Barrett, S. A.

Ancient Aztalan. Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of
Milwaukee, XIII, 1933.

Beauchamp, W. M.

Wampum and Shell Articles Used by the New York Indians.
Bulletin of the New York State Museum, VIII, No. 41, 1901,
pp. 321-480.

Bushnell, D. I., Jr.

The Origin of Wampum. Journal of the Anthropological Institute
of Great Britain and Ireland, XXXVI, 1906, pp. 172-177.

Mounds of the United States. Annual Report of the Smithsonian
Institution for 1928, pp. 663-685.

Cook, O. F.

Food Plants of Ancient America. Annual Report of the Smith¬
sonian Institution for 1903, pp. 481-505.

Cushing, F. H.

Primitive Copper Working: An Experimental Study. American
Anthropologist, VII, 1894, pp. 93-117.

The Germ of Shore-land Pottery. International Congress of
Anthropology, Chicago, 1894, pp. 217-234.

The Arrow. American Anthropologist, VIII, 1895, pp. 307-349.

Dixon, R. B.

Some Aspects of North American Archaeology. American Anthro¬
pologist, XV, 1913, pp. 549-566.

The Early Migrations of the Indians of New England and the
Maritime Provinces. Proceedings American Antiquarian Society,
XXIV, 1914, pp. 65-76.

The Building of Cultures. New York, 1928.

Douglass, A. E.

A Table of the Geographical Distribution of American Indian
Relics in a Collection Exhibited in the American Museum of
Natural History, New York. American Museum of Natural
History, Bulletin VIII, 1896, pp. 199-220.

113

114

Archaeology of North America

Dustin, F.

A Summary of the Archaeology of Isle Royale. Papers of Michigan
Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters, XVI, 1932, pp. 1-15.

Fowke, G. ’ _

Material for Aboriginal Stone Implements. The Archaeologist, II,
No. 10; 1894, pp. 328-335. / ' ’ -

Stone Art. Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, 1896, pp. 47-178.

Prehistoric Objects Classified and Described. Missouri Historical
Society, Department of Archaeology, Bulletin 1, 1913.

Gifford, E. W.

Pottery-making in the Southwest. University of California
Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, XXIII,
1926-28, pp. 353-373. : '

Gifford, E. W. and Schenck, W. E.

Archaeology of the Southern San Joaquin Valley, California.
University of California Publications in American. Archaeology
and Ethnology, XXIII, 1926-28, pp. 1-122.

Gilmore, M. R.

Arikara Uses of Clay and of Other Earth Products. Indian Notes,
Museum of the American Indian, II, No. 4, 1925, pp. 283-2.89.

Goddard, P. E.

Indians of the Northwest Coast. American Museum of Natural
History, Handbook Series, No. 10, 1924. ,

Gower, C. D.

The Northern and Southern Affiliations of Antillean Culture.
Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, No. 35,
1927, pp. 1-60.

Griffin, J. B.

Aboriginal Mortuary Customs in the Northeastern Woodlands
Area. In manuscript, University of Chicago Library.

Guthe, C. E.

Pueblo Pottery Making. New Haven, 1925.

Harrington, M. R.

Catawba Potters and Their Work. American Anthropologist, X,
1908, pp. 399-407.

Gypsum Cave, Nevada. Southwest Museum Papers, No. 8, Los
Angeles, California, 1933.

Hawley, F. M.

Prehistoric Pottery Pigments in the Southwest. American Anthro¬
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Bibliography 115

Henshaw, H. W. • *

Animal Carvings from the Mounds of the Mississippi Valley.
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
1883, pp. 123-166.

Hinsdale, W. B.

Archaeological Atlas of Michigan. Michigan Handbook Series,
No. 4, Ann Arbor, 1931.

Holmes, W. H. ,

Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans. Second Annual Report of
the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1883, pp. 185-305.

The Ancient Pottery of the Mississippi Valley. Fourth Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1886, pp. 361-436.

Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art.
Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
1886, pp. 437-465.

Aboriginal Copper Mines of Isle Royale, Lake Superior. American
Anthropologist, III, 1901, pp. 684-696.

Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern United States. Twentieth
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1903.

The Tomahawk. American Anthropologist, X, 1908, pp. 264-276.

Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities. Bureau of American
Ethnology, Bulletin 60, pt. I, 1919.

Hooton, E. A.

The Indians of Pecos Pueblo, New Haven, 1930.

Houghton, J. J. :

Ancient Copper Mines of Lake Superior. Wisconsin Historical
Collections, VIII, 1879, pp. 140-151.

Kroeber, A. L.

The Archaeology of California. Putnam Anniversary Volume,
New York, 1909, pp. 1-42.

Elements of Culture in Native California. University of California
Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, XIII,
No. 8, 1922, pp. 259-328.

Anthropology. New York, 1923.

Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American
Ethnology, Bulletin 78, 1925.

Arrow Release Distributions. University of California Publications
in American Archaeology and Ethnology, XXIII, 1926-28, pp.
283-296.

Native Culture of the Southwest. University of California Publica¬
tions in American Archaeology and Ethnology, XXIII, 1926-
28, pp. 375-398. . .

Laufer, B.

The American Plant Migration. Scientific Monthly, XXVIII,
1929, pp. 239-251.

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Columbus and Cathay, and the Meaning of America to the Orien¬
talist. Journal of American Oriental Society, LI, No. 2, 1931,
pp. 87-103.

Loskiel, G. H.

History of the Missions of the United Brethren among the Indians
of North America. Translated by C. I. La Trobe. London, 1794.

Mason, O. T.

Arrows and Arrow-makers: A Symposium. American Anthro¬
pologist, IV, 1891, pp. 45-74.

North American Bows, Arrows, and Quivers. Annual Report of
the Smithsonian Institution for 1893, Washington, 1894, pp.
631-679.

Overlaying with Copper by the American Aborigines. Proceedings,
United States National Museum, XVII, 1895, pp. 475-477.

Aboriginal American Basketry. Annual Report, United States
National Museum for 1902, Washington, 1904.

McGuire, J. D.

Material, Apparatus, and Processes of the Aboriginal Lapidary.
American Anthropologist, V, 1892, pp. 165-176.

A Study of the Primitive Methods of Drilling. Annual Report,
United States National Museum for 1894, Washington, 1896,
pp. 623-756.

Pipes and Smoking Customs of the American Aborigines, Based
on Material in the United States National Museum. Annual
Report, United States National Museum for 1897, Washington,
1899, pp. 351-645.

McKern, W. C.

The Neale and McClaughry Mound Groups. Bulletin of the
Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee, III, No. 3, 1928,
pp. 213-416.

The Kletzien and Nitschke Mound Groups. Bulletin of the Public
Museum of the City of Milwaukee, III, No. 4, 1930, pp. 417-572.

A Wisconsin Variant of the Hopewell Culture. Bulletin of the
Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee, X, No. 2, 1931, pp.
185-328.

Wisconsin Pottery. American Anthropologist, XXXIII, No. 3,
1931, pp. 383-389.

Mooney, J.

The Aboriginal Population of America North of Mexico. Smith¬
sonian Miscellaneous Collections, LXXX, No. 7, 1928, pp. 1-40.

Moore, C. B.

Certain Sand Mounds of the St. Johns River, Florida. Part II.
Philadelphia, 1894.

For copper analyses, see pp. 213-241.

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Origin. American Anthropologist, V, 1903, pp. 27-49. With
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Moorehead, W. K.

The Stone Age in North America. 2 vols. Boston and New York,
1910.

Stone Ornaments of the American Indians. Andover, 1917.

Archaeology of Maine. Andover, 1922.

The Cahokia Mounds. University of Illinois, 1929.

Exploration of the Etowah Site in Georgia. New Haven, 1932.

Orchard, W. C.

Beads and Beadwork of the American Indians. Contributions of
the Museum of the American Indian, XI, 1929.

Packard, R. L.

Pre-Columbian Copper-mining in North America. Annual Report
of the Smithsonian Institution for 1892, Washington, 1893,
pp. 175-198.

Parker, A. C.

The Archaeological History of New York. New York State Mu¬
seum Bulletin, Nos. 235-238, pts. 1 and 2, 1920.

Phillips, G. B.

The Primitive Copper Industry of America. American Anthro¬
pologist, XXVII, 1925, pp. 284-289.

Pond, A. W.

Primitive Methods of Working Stone Based on Experiments of
Halvor L. Skavlem. Logan Museum, Bulletin II, No. 1, 1930.

See especially bibliography.

Pope, S. T.

A Study of Bows and Arrows. University of California Publica¬
tions in American Archaeology and Ethnology, XIII, No. 9,
1922, pp. 329-414.

Putnam, F. W.

Notes on the Copper Objects from North and South America,
Contained in the Collections of the Peabody Museum. Fifteenth
Annual Report of Peabody Museum of American Archaeology
and Ethnology, III, No. 2, 1881, pp. 83-148.

The Way Bone Fish-hooks Were Made in the Little Miami Valley.
Twentieth Annual Report of Peabody Museum of American
Archaeology and Ethnology, III, No. 7, 1887, pp. 581-586.

Ritchie, W. A.

Algonkin Sequence in New York. American Anthropologist,
XXXIV, No. 3, 1932, pp. 406-414.

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Safford, W. E.

Our Heritage from the American Indian. Annual Report of the
Smithsonian Institution for 1926, Washington, 1927, pp. 405-411.

Sapir, E. '

Time Perspective in Aboriginal American Culture, a Study in
Method. Geological Survey of Canada, Anthropological Series,
No. 13, 1916.

Schmidt, K. P.

On the Zoogeography of the Holarctic Region. Lingnan Science
Journal, X, No. 4, 1931, Canton, China, pp. 441-449.

Schoolcraft, H. R.

Indian Tribes of the United States. Philadelphia, 1853.

Shetrone, H. C.

Explorations of the Hopewell Group of Prehistoric Earthworks.
Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, XXXV, 1926,
pp. 5-227.

The Mound-builders. New York, 1930.

Simms, S. C.

A Wheel-shaped Stone Monument in Wyoming. American Anthro¬
pologist, V, 1903, pp. 107-110.

Skinner, A. B.

The Pre-Iroquoian Algonkian Indians of Central and Western
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American Indian, II, No. 1, 1919-20, pp. 5-37.

Smith, G. V.

The Use of Flint Blades to Work Pine Wood. Annual Report
of the Smithsonian Institution for 1891, Washington, 1893,
pp. 601-605.

Speck, F. G.

Wampum in Indian Tradition and Currency. Proceedings of the
Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, XXVII,
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The Functions of Wampum among the Eastern Algonkian.
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Spinden, H. J.

The Population of Ancient America. Annual Report of the Smith¬
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West, G. A. . ; •

Copper: Its Mining and Use by the Aborigines of the Lake Superior
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Exceptional Prehistoric Copper Implements. Bulletin of the
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Whittlesey, C. . : - •• :v .. . r s

Ancient Mining on the Shores of Lake Superior. Smithsonian
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Willoughby, C. C. : .

Primitive Metal Working. American Anthropologist, V, 1903,
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The Serpent Mound of Adams County, Ohio. American Anthro¬
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Wilson, T.

Prehistoric Art. Annual Report, United States National Museum
for 1896, Washington, 1898, pp. 325-664.

Arrowpoints, Spearheads, and Knives of Prehistoric Times. Annuhl
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WlNTEMBERG, W. J. J ^ :

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WlSSLER, C.

The American Indian. New York, 1922. * ’

By Subjects

I. ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS

Dixon, 1913, pp. 549-566
Hooton, 1930, pp. 350-363
Kroeber, 1923, pp. 326-352
Laufer, 1929 and 1931

Mooney, 1928
Schmidt, 1931
Spinden, 1929
Wissler, 1922, pp. 287-303

II. CULTURE AREAS IN NORTH AMERICA

Dixon, 1914 and 1928
Goddard, 1924
Gower, 1927
Griffin (in manuscript)

Hinsdale, 1931
Holmes, 1919

Kroeber, 1909, 1922, 1923, 1925,
and 1926-28, pp. 375-398

120

Archaeology of North America

McKern, 1928, 1930, and 1931
(2 books)

Moorehead, 1922, 1929, 1932
Parker, 1920
Ritchie, 1932
Sapir, 1916

Shetrone, 1926 and 1930
Simms, 1903
Skinner, 1919-20
WlNTEMBERG, 1931
WlSSLER, 1922

III. INDIAN MOUNDS AND METHODS OF BURIAL

Bushnell, 1928
Griffin (in manuscript)
Henshaw, 1883

McKern, 1928, 1930, and 1931
(2 books)

Moore, 1894

Moorehead, 1929 and 1932
Shetrone, 1926 and 1930
Willoughby, 1919

IV. MANUFACTURE AND USES OF STONE ARTIFACTS

Baer, 1921

Cushing, 1895

Douglass, 1896

Fowke, 1894, 1896, and 1913

Holmes, 1919

Mason, 1891

McGuire, 1892, 1894, and 1897
Moorehead, 1910 and 1917
Pond, 1930
Smith, 1891
Wilson, 1897

V. MINING, MANUFACTURE, AND USES OF COPPER
IMPLEMENTS AND ORNAMENTS

Cushing, 1894
Holmes, 1901
Houghton, 1879
Mason, 1895

Moore, 1894, pp. 213-241,
1903

Packard, 1892
Phillips, 1925
Putnam, 1881
West, 1929 and 1932
and Whittlesey, 1863
Willoughby, 1903

VI. BONE AND SHELL WORK

Beauchamp, 1901
Bushnell, 1906
Holmes, 1883
Orchard, 1929

Putnam, 1887
Speck, 1916 and 1919
Stearns, 1887

VII. POTTERY

Cushing, 1894

Gifford, 1926-28, pp. 353-373
Gilmore, 1925
Guthe, 1925
Harrington, 1908

Hawley, 1929
Holmes, 1886 and 1903
McKern, 1931, pp. 383-389
Willoughby, 1909

INDEX

Abrading, 50
Adena culture, 42
Algonkins, 26-29, 40
Amerind, 5

Annealing copper, see Copper
Arrowheads, beveled, 53
Atlantis, 6

Ax, and celt, differences between,
54; grooved, 20, 23, 29, 30, 34,
44; stone, used in experiments
for cutting trees, 56-58; stone,
time required for manufacture
of, 54-56

Banner-stone, theoretical uses of,
60-61

Beads, discoidal shell, 84, 88;
tubular shell, 84, 88; uses of,
84; wampum, 84
Beveled arrowheads, see Arrow¬
heads

Bone, uses of, 80-81
Bow, composite, 13
Bow drill, 64
Burials, types of, 33, 38

Cahokia Mound, 45
Camels, indigenous American, 14
Catlinite, 25
Celts, 20, 30, 34
Chert, definition of, 49
Chipping process, 52
Chunkey stones, 61
Civilization, definition of, 17 ;
time required for rise of highest
American, 15-16
Coil method of making pottery,

. 92

Colors used in decorating pottery,
see Pottery

Copper, analyses, 79; annealing,
72, 75; cold wrought, 72, 74;
“drift,” 71; experiments in
working, 75-78; “float,” 71;
from Appalachian Mountains,
72; hardening, 72; methods
of mining, 71; native, 69, 79;

Copper, objects, age of, 74; orna¬
ments, 44, 72, 74; tempering,
72; tools, 72
Crematory basins, 45
Crumbling process, 54
Cultivated plants of New and
Old Worlds, see Plants
Culture, areas, 17-18; centers of,
34-35; definition of, 17; traits,
18; traits brought into New
World, 12

Cutting trees with stone ax, see
Ax

Dice, bone, 80

Diffusion of traits from Old
World into New World, 13
Domesticated animals, New
World,. 12; Old World, 12
“Drift” copper, see Copper
Drilling, experiments in, 64-66;
methods of, 64-66

Efficiency of stone ax as cutting
tool, see Ax

Effigy mounds, see Mounds
Experiments, in drilling, see
Drilling; in working copper,
see Copper

Extinction of bison, camels,
horses, sloths, date of, 15

Feathering of an arrow, 53
Flint, definition of, 49
“Float” copper, see Copper
Fluted axes, 26
Folsom, New Mexico, 14
Fort Ancient culture, 42
Fossil man in New World, 14
Fracturing, 50

Garden-beds, 25
Gold ornaments, 34
Gypsum Cave, 14

Hammerstones, 52
Hand drill, 64

121

122

Archaeology of North America

Hardening copper, see Copper
Hopewell culture, 44; in Wis¬
consin, 40
Horse, 14

Houses, Eskimo, 20; on piles, 33

Incised designs on pottery, see
Pottery

Indians, date of entry of into New
World, 15
Iroquois, 26-28
Ivory tools, 20

Knives, 54

Lamps, stone, 20

Manufacture of stone axes, time
required for, see Ax
Marriage proposal confirmed with
wampum, 87
Mauls, 49
Moccasin, 13
Money, 88-90

Mongolians, affinities of Indians
with, 8

Mounds, 24, 31, 36-37 ; antiquity
of, 48; conical, 37; effigy, 25,
37; linear, 37; oval, 37; pur¬
poses of, 36; truncated, 46

New Stone Age in Europe, date
of, 11-12

Paddle-and-anvil method of
making pottery, 93-94
Pecking process, 50
Peopling of New World, 11
Perforating, 50

Pile drivers, 22
Pipe-stone, see Catlinite
Plants, cultivated, of New and
Old Worlds, 13

Pottery, colors used in decorat¬
ing, 98; designs, 99-100; dis¬
tribution, 91; Eskimo, 91;
methods of making, 92-98;
regional characteristics of, 100-
102

Problematical objects, definition
of, 58; distribution of, 58
Pump drill, 65

Racial characteristics of Indians,
7-8

Red-paint culture, 28-29
Rotary motion of arrowheads, 53

Shell, beads, see Beads; cups, 80;
heaps, 33; money, 88-90; orna¬
ments, 80
Sloth, ground, 14
Soapstone bowls, 29, 30
Stone used for artifacts, 49
Strap drill, 64

Tempering copper, see Copper
Traits, culture, brought into New
World, see Culture
Truncated mounds, see Mounds

Wampum, uses of, 84-90; value
of, 90

Wedges, stone, 22
Whalebone tools, 29, 30
Wood and wood-working, 21-22

Guide Part 2 Plate I

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Guide Part 2

Plate II

COPPER ORNAMENTS PERFORATED FOR ATTACHMENT
TO CLOTHING, HOPEWELL MOUNDS, OHIO

Guide Part 2

Plate III

POTTERY FROM BURIAL MOUNDS, ARKANSAS

Guide Part 2 Plate IV

STONE AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS (HOES AND SPADES), SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

Guide Part 2 Plate V

COPPER IMPLEMENTS, WISCONSIN

COPPER ARROWHEADS AND SPEARHEADS, WISCONSIN

Guide Part 2

Plate VII

HOPI INDIAN WOMAN MAKING POTTERY BY COIL METHOD, ARIZONA

Guide Part 2

Plate VIII

CARVED PORTION OF HUMAN FEMUR
HOPEWELL MOUNDS, OHIO

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